Get cheaper AA Driving lessons

If you really want cheaper AA driving lessons, then instead of calling the 0800 number on the side of the car, contact the driving instructor directly and haggle the price with him or her as this means the ADI doesn't have to pay for the introduction. You can do this even if you had registered with them recently, as long as you didn't take any lessons with the new AA instructor.

How do you know what will be a good price to pay for AA driving lessons? Go to the website and get a quote, if the price for your area is not given online (large city prices are not quoted), call up (make sure you withhold your number otherwise someone will call you up) and ask for a quote. Once you know the price, you can then ask for a lower price when contacting the Instructor directly, a good starting place is £3 lower than the official price, though it is up to you to decide what you can afford, and see if the instructor will accept this or not.

Many AA Driving Instructors are short of work, so they will gladly take something rather than nothing, especially when they have to pay £200 every week to the AA driving School for their franchise.

Don't be afraid to knock on the door of a house where you see an AA driving school parked outside, especially during the week, it might be that the ADI has not got any lessons booked which is why the driving school car is parked outside, so this could also be a sign that you would be able to get bargain AA driving lessons.

Giving AA Driving Lessons

One of the joys of being an ADI with the school is that learner drivers are always looking for high quality AA Driving Lessons. The strong brand name attached to the organisation means that people want to have the best value tuition that their money can get, though not all of the learner drivers will necessarily want to pay pull price for the privildge, some opting to have just one or 2 remidial hours, while others would want a large discount on the current market price, you as a driving instructor will have to consider your individual circumstances and treat each case with your business hat on!

As an instructor holding a franchise with them, giving AA Driving Lessons was a joy, being associated with such a large brand doesn't come cheap as reflected in the weekly franchise charge by the driving school (£200 in 2008), which is one of the reasons why I decided to operate my own independent driving school. While working for myself without a franchise will not allow me to command the high premium I was able to with the AA, I can choose which car to use, market my business more aggressively without fear of breaking some terms and conditions set by the organization.

I must confess I do miss giving AA driving lessons in the Ford Focus car, but not all pupils who used the services of the driving school where totally satisfied with the level of tuition they got, judging by some reviews on consumer websites or learner driver forums. This is not completely down to the organisation, as all ADI's are self employed, and not employed by them so can run their business as they like under the general franchise umbrella.

My advice to anyone learning to drive a car in the UK who have paid the high premium for having AA driving lessons is they should contact the customer advice centre in Bristol if they are not happy with the level of service they are getting (you should always speak to your instructor in the first instance to iron out issues), and request another ADI.

The ex AA Driving School Instructors Blog

Welcome to the ex AA Driving School instructor's blog. Having held a franchise with the AA driving school twice, I would like to share my experience with both learner drivers and any driving instructors who might be thinking of taking a franchise with the school.

AA Driving School for Driving Lessons
Many learners will decide to take driving lessons with the AA Driving School because it is a well known and very strong brand in the automotive industry. The AA is well known for its breakdown recovery service, and thus it is understandable that people would turn to them for driving lessons.

The first thing a learner drive should be aware of, is that all AA Driving School Instructors are self-employed, and not employees of the organisation. Why is this important? The AA driving school has around 2000 instructors (Jan 2008), and each one of these driving instructors will be running his own business his own way, there are basic guidelines (eg call all pupils allocated to you within 24hrs), but there is no way the AA can monitor all these instructors, so the service you get will be a reflection of that instructor.



If you have any problems with your learning, the first person to talk to is your AA Driving Instructor, if you feel that the problem is not resolved, then the best course of action would then be to call the AA driving school. If you are not happy with your driving instructor, you can call up and get a new one anytime. You don't need to give any particular reason, just say you want another one, If you are given any difficulty, just say you will stop having AA driving lessons, that usually get them to act.

AA Driving School for Driving Instructors

There are many potential driving instructors (PDIs) and approved driving instructors (ADIs) who might be thinking about taking out a franchise with the AA driving school, and I hope that the information provided in this blog will be of use to you in helping you make an informed decision.

The AA Driving School franchise works on a fixed weekly fee, with additional charges for optional services provided.
The fixed fee covers the car, some marketing, support and some stationary. The additional charges are for pupil introductions (a one off charge of £30 for each successful pupil), automatic car supplements. The fixed weekly franchise fee was almost £200 in Feb 2008.

If you are an ADI, and are thinking of taking out a franchise with the AA driving school, then you should try and speak to existing instructors already operating in your area to see if there is enough work through the AA for you, as there have been reports of the driving school taking on to many people in an area, and that you might not get as many learner drivers as you would expect. Please note that no franchise can guarantee you a specified number of pupils in a week.

AA Instructors Insite Website

One of the best tools the AA Driving School offers to its Instructors for managing their business is the Insite Website.

When I first joined the AA as an instructor in 2003, the insite website was only accesable to those who used 56k modems to access the internet, I had broadband so I was unable to use this tool to manage my diary, set pupil cap limits or do other functions that an AA driving instructor had to do on a daily basis to effectively run their driving school business.

On joining the school for my second franchise with them, I was unlucky to have started at a time when they were carrying out a major upgrade of the Dataflex system which was part of the backbone infrastructure behind the Driving School's Insite Intranet, so the first few months were full of teething problems as the new insite system was written specifically to improve on the 10yr old dataflex system. While the features that were implemented by the new insite system were numerous and gave instructors complete control of their business, my first impressions were not good especially when you are starting out a new driving instructor business with a well known brand like the AA.

AA Insite Intranet Problems Fixed

Following a few months of teething problems with the AA driving school insite website, all system issues were fixed, and instructors now had a very useful tool to help them perform all their administrative tasks without having to call the Driving School call centre in Bristol.

You could check transactions on your account as they were added, so if a new pupil was allocated, you would see the details, any charges that were applied would also show, and as an AA driving instructor, I always kept close watch on these, as the system was not infallable, and mistakes could happen and I would be ready to query any unrecognised transactions especially those £30 pupil intriduction charges.

While I've never used any other national driving school's franchise management system, I must say that once the AA driving school's insite problems were fixed, that it turned out to be one of the most valuable tools the instructor could use to function properly as an AA ADI.

If you are a fully qualified instructor currently holding a franchise with the AA driving School and don't use the Insite Intranet, I would advise you to get broadband at home, and get connected to this important business tool provided by the AA.

AA Driving Lessons

Why have you decided to have lessons with AA Driving school? Does having learner driver tuition with them guarantee a better service and thus a higher chance of passing the driving test?

One of the marketing sales pitch of the AA Driving School is that we only use fully qualified approved driving instructors (ADI), while that is good, you must remember that every driving instructor is self-employed, and thus does not fully answer to anyone at the AA.

It is therefore important for you think carefully if you are not getting good quality tuition from your AA Driving Instructor, do you stick with them just because of the prestige of the brand or are you really interested in learning to drive a car safely and going on to passing your DSA driving test.

The AA driving school just like any other training establishment can provide good quality tuition, but it depends soley on the attitude and drive of your individual AA driving instructor, and not the brand name. Many of the instructors with the AA are very hard working, proud of the brand and do a good job of providing quality learner driver tuition, but you might be unlucky and get a bad apple, then you need to make sure you don't keep quiet. You are paying for a service, not cheap driving lessons either, so if you are not getting the good quality tuition you expect from the AA driving school instructor, request to get a new one.

Back to the orginal question, choosing AA driving lessons doesn't guarantee a top quality tuition experience, though more often than not you will get one, but you can also get this elsewhere so don't discount local independent driving schools and their ADIs.