Newslink September 2023

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ADI Survey So what can ADIs take away from the latest DVSA on ‘Working as a Driving Instructor’ survey? Here’s our thoughts the highlights... Regional price variations What ADIs charge, by region Y A more precise breakdown WHAT KIND OF TRAINER ARE YOU? As was found in previous surveys, the vast majority of ADIs are independent instructors, with 69.6% operating as such. 16.9% work with local driving schools, while 11.1% are with one of the big national franchise operations. Overwhelmingly, learner drivers still pay the bills: 98.4% devote their time to teaching non-licence holders, though 11 per cent also teach fleet and 9.7 % teach PDIs/other ADIs, meaning there is considerable overlap. Interestingly, the DVSA did not directly ask how many ADIs were operating in the speed awareness field, which we know many MSA GB members are doing. This is still a profession with a lot of experienced instructors. Nearly half of all respondents had been doing the job for more than 12 years, suggesting that once it gets its hooks into you, it is difficult to leave. Perhaps the reason for this can be found in this stat: In the main, ADIs believe they do a worthwhile job, are happy and feel they make a personal contribution to both other people’s lives and road safety as a whole. 90% agree or strongly agree that they are interested in their work as an ADI, that the role gives them a sense of personal accomplishment and that they are making a positive contribution to road safety and making transport cleaner and healthier. Less positive are ADIs views of the DVSA. When asked, ‘I have the opportunity to contribute my views to DVSA before decisions are made that affect me’ only 35.3% agree or strongly agree; 35.6% take the opposite view, in disagreeing or strongly disagreeing. The rest are neutral. Sadly, while work contentment is high, you have to wonder about some ADIs’ work-life balance. While 87.8% work weekdays, 44.3% say they also work evenings and 48.4% work weekends. An incredible 33.4% also work Bank Holidays, excluding Christmas. We did wonder how many break into that holiday... Perhaps that explains why 20% admit that they don’t have a good work-life balance – though it is encouraging to see that 62% do thing they get the balance right. Over half of all ADIs (62.2%) work more than 25 hours a week, with 10.2% content to do fewer than 15 hours. At least the days of ADIs doing multiple jobs appears to be receding: for 87.6% of respondents, being an ADI is their sole earned income, though there is no reference made to pension income on top of ADI earnings. What are you driving? 16 NEWSLINK n SEPTEMBER 2023
For all the latest news, see www.msagb.com THE CARS WE DRIVE With major changes to tuition vehicles continuing apace, and plenty more changes to come, the DVSA was keen to look at the type of cars ADIs drive. The thing that leaps out are the number of automatics; could we soon see these dominate tests? The issue here is overlap. Some ADIs run more than one car, and it is clear that some are running automatics AND manuals, switching their tuition between the two. Therefore it is dangerous to read too much into these figures as definitive, but here goes... As all electric cars and their hybrid cousins are autos, 16% of ADIs using these cars are ‘auto instructors’. Add in the nearly 9% of petrol autos and the 3.8% of diesel autos and you have a total ADI automatic parc of 28.6%. That’s higher than expected. This trend will certainly continue if the 30.6% of all ADIs who say they are looking to change their car in the next 12 months plump for EVs/hybrids. THE PRICE TO PAY There is a steady increase in the hourly rates around the country. One-in-300 ADIs are still charging below £20, but to offset that, 1.6% charge over £45. The rest charge, in the main, between £31-35 (46.6%), though 31.1% go a bit higher and charge £36-40. What is interesting about this is when you connect the price ranges charged with the amount of experience an ADI has. You would automatically assume that those charging less than £30 an hour would all be new to the profession, and while that is true to some degree, it is not as marked a difference as you would expect – and in fact, the group that charges the least most, are those with more than nine years in the game. 14.2% of ADIs with less than a year’s experience charge £30 or less – but 17.5% of ADIs with more than 12 years do so, too. The group that charges the least, least often, are those with 1-4 years in the profession: only 10% charge £30 or less. Indeed, the data shows that despite only having a year’s experience, nearly a third of new ADIs charge £36+. As far as regional variations go, perhaps surprisingly the region which has the most ADIs charging £36+ is not the South East, but the South West (65.7%). Scotland is the second as the region/nation charging £36+, with 52.3%, followed by the South East. Only 6.3 per cent of ADIs in the North East charge more than £36 an hour, a massive difference on their southern (and northern) counterparts. In the North East, 40.4% of ADIs are charging less than £30 an hour. When pupils take a break Why do pupils take extended breaks from lessons? What is also interesting here is the disparity between the ‘South East’ and London. The South East sees 10.9% of ADIs charging below £30, 37.5% charging between £31-35 and 51.7% over £36. The same figures for London are: 21.5%, 50.7% and 27.8%. Do those ADIs working fewer hours charge more - or less – than the average? There are still a number of ADIs who used to be dubbed the ‘Pin money brigade’ still active in the profession. However, this label isn’t as accurate as some would think. Over 70% of ADIs who work fewer than 15 hours charge £31+, though this is less than those working more than 16 hours a week, where 83% are charging above that figure. The group that is most often charging the highest fee are those working 35 hours+: 44% charge more than £36. Finally: price increases. Over 68.5 per cent of ADIs have raised their prices in the past year, compared to 90 per cent who did so in 2022. A third of ADIs have kept prices static in 2023. One per cent reduced their prices. BIGGEST CHALLENGES When asked what challenges were affecting their business, ADIs had a number of issues to contend with. The biggest was ‘pupils who I have not trained asking to be taken on a test’: 75.1% had this problem. There was also a notable number of pupils taking a break from lessons (46%) or wanting less frequent lessons (39.8%), suggesting the cost of living crisis is continuing to bite. However, these figures are lower than in 2022, when the same questions were offered by 50.4% and 45.8% of ADIs respectively. How many hours do you teach a week? When asked why pupils were making these requests, 59.3 per cent cited financial constraints, though high waiting times for tests was a bigger reason, with 90.4% of ADIs saying this had been an issue. 6% of pupils had decided not to learn to drive. On the subject of learners asking to be taken to test who had not been trained by the ADI, this was happening two to three times a week for nearly half of respondents. Nearly 10 % of ADIs were receiving requests for this more than five times a week. The lack of driving test availability was the key challenge ADIs face, with 60% saying this was a day-to-day difficulty. 9% said their biggest hassle was managing ‘pupil/parent expectations’. HOW MANY PUPILS? Interestingly, there has been a drop in the number of pupils on ADIs’ books at any one time. The average is now 19.3, down from 22.3 in June 2021. Are we getting through the post-pandemic wave? Perhaps not; the number of ADIs with availability to take on more pupils has fallen since October 2022, with 29.8% saying they have room in the diaries, compared with 32% last year. ADIs in London have the most availability (55.9%), those in the North East have the least (17.4%). That statistic, of course, makes no sense in terms of prices charged: economics says that where supply is scarce, prices rise. If there is little or no chance of getting an ADI in the North East, that fact alone should drive up prices. Yet North East ADIs charge the least; so much for supply and demand economics! NEWSLINK n SEPTEMBER 2023 17
Page 1: msagb.com Newslink Issue 368 • Se
Page 4 and 5: Inside 18 State of the ADI nation 1
Page 6 and 7: MSA GB News Telford to host MSA GB
Page 8: News DTC update: Classic Blackpool
Page 11 and 12: For all the latest news, see www.ms
Page 15: For all the latest news, see www.ms
Page 29 and 30: ADI groups and associations MSA GB
Page 39: For all the latest news, see www.ms

Newslink September 2023

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