Choosing a Driving School

Choosing a driving school that has great instructors and a great training program is essential to becoming a safe driver. We all know that it is important to have a good teacher and the best person to teach you to drive is a driving instructor. There is a lot of research that shows the quality of on road driving experience you receive determines your road safety.

Spending a lot of time driving around with someone who is not teaching you to drive and helping you become a better driver is not much use. You will learn more and become a better driver with a good driving instructor. The fact is some driving instructors have more qualifications than other driving instructors. In addition some driving instructors are better at teaching and explaining concepts than other instructors

The most common question I get when someone is looking for a driving school is what is the price? Most people don’t ask any other questions such as how good are the instructors or what qualifications do your instructors have.  Some other things that should be considered before selecting a driving school are:

Things to consider when Choosing a Driving School

• Qualified Driving Instructors
• Dual Control Cars
• Full One Hour Driving Lessons
• Reviews and Recommendations
• Automatic and Manual Cars
• Structured Driving Lessons
• Does the Driving School teach Safer Driver Courses

Qualified Driving Instructors

Unfortunately their are some people working as driving instructors who are not qualified Driving Instructors. I regularly get phone calls from students who had driving instructors with someone else. Then when it comes time to do the test their “driving instructor” will not do the test with them. If you are a good driving instructor and you have prepared your student for the test surely you would do the test with your student. Unfortunately some driving instructors are not qualified and they can not go to the Roads & Maritime Services with their student. This is because they will get a fine for working as a driving instructor when they are not qualified and approved driving instructors.

At Learn To Drive Driving School you can be assured your Driving Instructor is fully qualified. Just ask them and they will show your their Driving Instructors Licence. In addition to being qualified it also helps if your driving instructor has a lot of experience. In addition to this a thorough knowledge of the local area and testing requirements also helps. When you take a driving lesson with Learn to drive you can relax in the knowledge that your instructor knows the local test tracks. In addition they also know what the local examiners are looking for. It will be much easier for you to pass the test when you learn what is in the test and how they mark the test.

Additional Qualifications

Some driving instructors are very committed to being the best. They undertake additional training and get more qualifications. Having more than the basic qualifications is a good sign that your driving instructor takes road safety and learning to drive seriously. At Learn to drive we have driving instructors who want to be the best and we are continually improving our knowledge. Some of the additional qualifications driving instructors can have include:

• Safer Driver Course Facilitators
• Safer Driver Course Coaches
• NDIS Approved Driving Lessons
• Specialized driving lessons for students with learning and physical disabilities

Some of our qualifications include

• Transport and Logistics Road Transport Driving Instruction Certificate IV.
• Certificate IV in Training and Assessment.
• Roads and Maritime Services approved Older Driver Assessor.
• Safer Drivers Course Facilitator. Ministry of Transport in New South Wales course. Administered by the Roads and Maritime Services of New South Wales. There are two components to this course and most driving instructors are not qualified for either.
• Safer Drivers Course Coaches Training.
• Driver Assessment & Rehabilitation Course for Driving Instructors. NDIS approved rehabilitation course.
• Curtin University: Supporting Student Drivers on the Autism Spectrum
• Western Sydney University: Supporting student drivers on the Autism Spectrum
• Heavy Combination drivers licence
• Certificate III in Transport and Logistics (Road Transport)
• Transport and Logistics (Road Transport) General Certificate III
• Public Passenger Bus Driver Proficiency Certificate
• Fatigue Management Strategies

How to choose a Professional Driving Schools

There are a lot of driving instructors who take short cuts and fail to teach you to drive safely. When selecting a driving instructor there are a number of things you can look for to ensure you gain the most out of each driving lesson.

Dual Control Cars

Make sure your driving instructor has a dual control car. If the student makes a mistake you need the instructor to be able to use the dual controls to maintain control of the car.

It is a Roads & Maritime Services requirement that all driving instructors must have a dual control car. Unfortunately there are some people teaching people to drive who are not actually qualified driving instructors. If you are going to pay someone for lessons you should make sure they are actually qualified to teach you to drive.

Full One Hour Driving Lesson

It takes time to teach someone to drive. That is why the Roads & Maritime Services require 120 log book hours of driving to be recorded in the log book. Because the more experience you have the better you become at driving. When you start a driving lesson you want your instructor to have time to assess your driving and identify any areas that need improvement. Then your instructor needs to teach you how to improve your driving.

Make sure you deal with a driving school that gives you value for money. At Learn To Drive we make sure you get what you are paying for. Some driving schools only do 45 minute lessons which does not leave enough time for you to practice what you have learnt. This is a false economy and leads to poor driver outcomes. You will benefit from the additional practice and become a better driver.

In addition some Driving Schools arrive late and finish early which means you do not get the full one hour lesson that you paid for. Make sure you deal with a reputable driving school.

Good Reviews

Look at what other students have to say about the driving school. Check the schools Facebook page and Google reviews to see what former students think of the school. If a driving school is doing a good job then they will have positive reviews from former students. You might as well benefit from the experiences of other students.

Structured Lesson Plan

A good driving instructor will make sure you learn everything you need to know. It is not possible for a driving instructor to remember what they have taught each student in thousands of lessons. Yes good driving instructors teach a lot of lessons and they see a lot of students every week.

Therefore when you have a good driving instructor they will give you a student record card. On this record card they will list all of the things you need to know in order to drive safely and pass the driving test. Your instructor will use this to record your progress and ensure you are improving with each lesson. They will also be able to structure each lesson to focus on a particular area of your driving.

This means you will learn new things and improve your driving skills on each lesson.