It’s important to remember though that no two days as a driving instructor are the same. That’s the beauty of this career, there is a lot of variety to your day. Hopefully this will give you a good idea of the day-to-day that you could experience as a driving instructor.
A Day In The Life…
Before we delve into the world of a couple of our instructors there are some things all instructors will do as a daily or weekly routine. For example all instructors will typically get their car washed every two-three days, this is important when you’re spending so much time on the road – things can get a little messy both inside and outside the car. Each instructor also spends around an hour a week doing their books and planning for the lessons they have ahead of them that week. You’ll also notice that each instructor starts the day by checking their cars over to ensure it’s ready for the day’s lessons.
…Of David
David is one of our full-time driving instructors here at 4 Wheelz covering Cannock and Lichfield. He’s been a driving instructor and working for 4 Wheelz for 13 years. Typically a full-time driving instructor at 4 Wheelz will have around 35-40 lessons in a week, each day varying in format and content.
Today David is starting his day with a 9am lesson. Before he heads off he checks his car over, walking around the outside of the car, checking the screen wash and oil levels to ensure the vehicle is safe and ready for lessons.
He gets to his first lesson at 9am, a short drive from where he lives. Today David has three back-to-back lessons until lunchtime, around 1pm today. He’s chosen to give himself an hour lunch today as he has a few errands to run. Thanks to the flexibility of being a driving instructor you can choose whether to take a longer or short lunch break, depending on what you prefer. Some of our instructors take longer lunch breaks to walk the dog or hit the gym.
David heads to his next lesson at 2pm, where he has another two lessons before he heads home at around 4pm for a coffee break before starting his evening lessons between 5 and 8pm. He generally winds down after a day of lessons reflecting on how the pupils he has seen that day are progressing and formulating a plan of what he wants them to achieve next.
In a week David tends to work two or three evenings during the week and can have up to five lessons on a Saturday. His day will differ dramatically if he has a pupil who has a driving test that week, spending time with that pupil before their test and waiting whilst they are out on their driving test hopefully obtaining a first time pass.
…Of Andrea
Andrea is a part-time instructor at 4 Wheelz, who fits her lessons schedule around her children. She’s been a driving instructor for 12 years and with 4 Wheelz for 6 years. She’ll typically do around 20 hours of driving tuition a week, however the flexibility is there for her to work more or less as and when she likes – another driving instructor perk for those with a family.
Andrea’s day of lessons tends to start at 9.00am after dropping off the baby at child care. As David does she checks the car over before heading to her first lesson of the morning. We aim to place our driving instructors with pupils in their local area in order to minimise the travelling required between lessons – this means no long commutes for our instructors. Andrea does 3 lessons and has a lunch break at 12.30pm for 1 hour resuming her lessons until approx 3.45pm just in time to do the school run for her other children. Whilst Andrea’s week is typically made up of daytime lessons she will also do motorway lessons on a weekend and for those pupils who request extra lessons coming up to their test.
Life Of A Driving Instructor
The flexibility of being a driving instructor is one of the things which appeals to a lot of our driving instructors. They can schedule their working week around other commitments they have, creating a positive work-life balance.
You also have the opportunity to build good relationship with lots of different people. You get a real sense of achievement as you watch them learn, grow in confidence and eventually pass their driving test – all thanks to your driving tuition.
If you are interested in developing a rewarding career as a driver instructor with flexible working hours, check our driving instructor training page. Here you will find everything you need to know to become a confident driving instructor.
For further questions about a driving instructors day-to-day tasks and any of the elements mentioned on this post, let us know in the comments box below.