ex AA Driving School Instructors Blog

AA Driving School Low Mileage Franchises

2011-06-27T13:35:00.004+01:00

The AA driving school now offers a low mileage instructor franchise for those ADIs who either work Part time or only cover a small geographical area and don't want to pay a full franchise fee.

There is a fixed weekly rate of £125 (inc vat as at July 2011), with each mile per week charged at 15p. All vehicles are fitted with an onboard computer to record weekly distances travelled.

The new franchise was probably introduced to temp more driving instructors to AA and follows the buy out of BSM in Feb 2011.

AA group buys BSM Driving School

2011-02-02T09:54:00.003Z

AA Developments Ltd yesterday 1st Febuary 2011 bought the BSM driving school after it went in to administration following an aggressive campaign to increase its driving school franchise instructors to 3000 from 2100.

The sale now means that the parent company of AA driving school now owns to the 2 largest national learner driver businesses as the initial plans are to keep the two brands as different operations.

One doesn't know yet what changes are going to be made to the 100yr old BSM, but as far as AA developments is concerned, it is a win win situation for them being owners of 2 of the best known motoring brands in the UK.

BSM or AA driving school franchise

2010-06-29T10:19:00.005+01:00

If you are asking the question which driving school franchise should I go for as a recently qualified instructor looking to build up a pupil base before going independent, then my suggestion would be the AA driving school just for the main reason that you are currently only tied into a one month contract as opposed to BSM which can be up to 6 months.

Unless you already have a job and want to start driving instruction on a part-time basis, most newly qualified ADIs have to join a school franchise in order to get their foot into the business, as it takes more than a few family members, friends and neighbours to earn a living.

Some BSM instructors particularly those in metropolitan cities might swear by their franchises, but consider being locked into a 6 month contract in an area where BSM is not very strong, and having to pay £300 a week irrespective of if you have enough learner drivers or not (no franchise ever includes a guarantee of pupil supply in their contract).

While I am no longer with the AA driving school, it would be my option if I ever needed a boost in learner drivers as an existing or newly qualified driving instructor, and the weekly fee of £200 is not too bad even though you still have to pay £40 pounds for every new pupil supplied!

I miss AA driving School Franchise

2010-04-13T18:43:00.003+01:00

One of the things that I miss about the AA driving school franchise is that the tuition car is totally worry free and all I need to put into it is petrol, everything else is taken care (of course that hefty weekly fee covers it), tyres, car scratches, dents, breakdown and servicing (if required).

Being an independent driving instructor means you have to be even more vigillant to avoid unnecessary additional costs caused by learner drivers hitting the kerb and damaging tyres, punctures, scratches or dents to car, especially if you are leasing the driving school car.

Having said all that, this is not enough reason for me to ever consider taking out a franchise with AA driving school again.

More Reading
Ex AA instructor in court over franchise promises.

Ex AA Instructor in Court in Franchise battle

2010-04-05T23:51:00.003+01:00

An ex AA driving instructor is challenging the AA driving school in court over it's driving school franchise on the grounds of fraudulent misrepresentation and damages, the main problem being that they take on more instructors than they are able to support with pupil supplies!

Anyone who has been in this business will know that any franchise is out there to make money for the owners, and the cause of the franchisee is secondary.

I left the AA for the very fact that they couldn't supply me with enough learner drivers in London in 2007, despite the fact that I had to pay them almost £200 a week, on top of which there was the £30 a pupil introduction charge.

While I do sympathise with this ex-AA driving instructor, I would not have taken the bold step he took based just on the words of a salesperson sitting in a Bristol based call centre who was concerned about meeting their monthly target.

I wish him all the best with the case that begins on the 6th of April 2010.

Details of the claim can be found here

AA Pupil introduction fee 2010

2010-03-30T15:33:00.003+01:00

The AA driving school pupil introduction fee rose to £40 in feb 2010 so I was told by one of their franchised instructors told me recently!

This fee wouldn't be a problem if the quality of the introductions where high like it used to be in the olden days when every referal came with a minimum of 12 pre-paid hours so you where guaranteed a set income for each learner driver. Nowadays you pay the £40 fee even if the learner driver only takes one driving lesson, especially now with the state of the economy and the high cost the the AA charges for tuition.

I have mentioned in the past that driving school franchises are designed to make money, so all the call centre has to do is to persuade the provisional licence owner to prepay for one lesson, they charge the instructor £40 in addition to the weekly franchise fee, it is then up to the instructor to do everything in his/her power to keep the pupil, which might include dropping the lesson price from the official rate!

AA Driving School Marketing January 2010

2010-01-19T16:25:00.004Z

The AA seems to have just launched its 2010 driving school marketing campaign to recruit more fully qualified instructors to take up its franchise, as I today received a letter in the post advising that now than any other time is it right for me to join them.

The marketing letter which was probably sent to all fully qualified intructors in the area from the ADI register which can be bought by any organisation gives a few 'good' reasons why I should join this progressive national driving school.

There are not just about learner drivers.

The AA is a leading UK ADI training provider

They provide BTEC in science training on a national level

The AA provides some training for the Police

Corporate driver training to businesses

All in all, I should join them because they have many ways of earning me money with the AA franchise, and as a sweetner, they will give me a £600 discount on their over £200 a week franchise fee in the early months to get me started!

The main reason i left the AA driving school was because they could not offer me enough learner driver pupils in London, always advising to do my own marketing/advertising to suppliment my pupil supply (they were giving me less than 5 a week, despite the £30 charge for each introduction)!

Good luck to any of you starting out with them in this new year 2010, you might have a much richer experience than I did.

AA Driving Instructor Diaries not filled

2009-03-18T10:04:00.004Z

I was speaking to an AA Driving School Instructor recently at the soon to be closed Hendon test centre, and he was saying that the AA Bristol call centre was not able to fill his diary at the moment with pupils.

This fully qualified ADI has held an AA franchise for over 18years, was available for work for 60 hours a week and covering about 9 North London post codes and yet not fully booked. This is obviously the effects of the current credit crunch economy, and I woud wonder how a newly qualfied driving instructor would be coping with an AA driving school franchise, especially after the 10 weeks discounted period is over and you still have to pay £200 pounds a week minimum franchise fee, could be more if you've had pupil introductions (£30 per learner driver no matter how many lessons they eventually have).

This is one of the reasons why I decided to become an independent driving school instructor. While I can't charge as much as an AA instructor, I can freely market myself as I like, don't have to use a 1600cc Ford Focus car for driving tuition, have a less expensive monthly car leasing fee to pay and generally have less strees in my life. The biggest reward is of course the fact that I'm now promoting my business, and everytime some sees my car, it is promoting me, not the AA.

If you've taken out a national driving school franchise to get yourself established in the industry, I wish you the best, but I would recommend you always have setting up your own driving school up at the back of your mind.

PS I've just had a letter through the post inviting me to join the organisation, offer a weekly franchise fee of £28 gradually stepped up, claiming to equate to over £1000!

AA Franchise - Driving Instructors

2009-01-22T17:00:00.001Z

The AA Driving School Franchise Take One

I've held an AA Driving School franchise twice, and would like to share my experience with any PDI or ADI thinking of taking out one.

I first joined the AA Driving school as an ADI in late 2003, at the time I had recently become a driving instructor, and needed for my new driving school business to grow, and the way the franchise was setup at the time suited me very well. There was the weekly fixed fee which was about £160 and they then charged you about £150 for every pupil they supplied you over a 10 week period, but the good thing was that they only charged you for a maximum of 10 pupils. They also had an introductory offer which meant that I didn't have to pay the fully weekly franchise fee until I had been with them for 10 weeks. I also think it was one of the cheapest driving school franchises at the time, at least compaered to BSM, RED and probably LDC.

My first franchise with the AA Driving School at the time was very good, I had lots of pupils and didn't have any complaints as an instructor with them, in fact I had to limit the number of pupils with them, as I was getting very busy. I had to give up my franchise with the AA driving school due to some family problems about 2 years after I joined them.

AA Driving School Franchise Second Time

I decided to rejoin the AA driving school as a franchisee in 2007 having sorted out my family problems and having looked at the various driving school franchises around including the Red Driving School, Safeway, the AA still offered the best option for my needs, and since I'd had good service from them the first time round, I had no reservations becoming a driving instructor with the AA for the second time, however things were not going to be the same I later found out.

Just before I left the AA driving school the first time I had a franchise with them, there were a couple of changes made, one of them was a different way of charging instructors for allocated pupils to via insite. Instead of the system I mentioned eralier, there was now a flat £30 fee for each pupil introduced to the ADI. This new change also meant that the instructor was no longer guaranteed a minimum number of lessons with the learner driver pupil. The AA's spin on this was that after their 1st lesson, that pupil was now profitable for the instructor, while this was true, what actually happened in reality, was that there were a lot of instances where the pupil either did not turn up for the lesson, took only one or two lessons and then didn't want anymore (at least not at the AA recommended price anyway), and unless the instructor was very dillegent in checking the insite website, you could end up being charged with a fee for a learner that had cancelled their lessons.

AA needs Driving Instructors

2009-01-21T14:40:00.003Z

Apparently the AA driving school is looking for more fully qualified instructors to join them. I recently received a letter in the post from them, which is probably part of a new advertising/marketing campaign for the year 2009 advising me on the new opportunities that they can now offer ADIs that take up a franchise with them.

As an ex AA driving school franchisee, I'm fully aware of the benefits of being with them, and would currently prefer to remain an independent instructor, and won't be tempted by their 24 hour vehicle replacement service, the discounted weekly fees in the first 8 or 10 weeks, though the new feature where they offer a free week after 6 and 12 months is quite tempting!

Pupil supply is something that I'm not totally sure of, and anyone seeking to go with the AA driving school franchise is best advised to check with local AA instructors to see if there is enough learners being supplied to them before committing to the contract, as not everyone can be a fleet, or instructor trainer, and you need to be with them for at least being considered, and there is no guarantee that you will be accepted.

Don't be totally convinced by the highly hyped and well written marketing material you got in the post, as you will always have to pay your weekly franchise fee irrepective of whether you get enough pupils or not, and pupil introductions are additional costs for the AA driving school instructor.

AA Driving School Franchise 10 facts

2009-01-16T16:39:00.003Z

The AA driving school franchise is not a bad deal, and is a very good way of starting your driving instructor business as long as you are aware of a few things.

1. The AA is a strong brand which is very good for instructors getting new learners privately, but don't expect them to pay the full lesson price for their area when coming to you directly.

2. Don't take an AA Driving Instructor franchise expecting them to give you all the pupils that will make your business successful, you need to do your own marketing as well, and expect to keep doing this until you are established.

3. You can't use the AA logo on your personal website, stationary, but you can mention you are an AA driving Instructor. Photos of your car can not also be used on private marketing materials.

4. You get all the stationary you need to run your business free, but cards, AA approved marketing materials are provided at extra cost.

5. The franchise fee is payable weekly, and is usually off set by any AA driving lessons you have given which have been prepaid to the Bristol office. AA pupil introduction fees are additional.

6. The is an introduction franchise fee discount for new driving instructors which could be up to 10 weeks, and there could be other offers as well. The introductory discount means you don't have to pay the full weekly fee which is very helpful for a newly qualified ADI to build their client base.

7. There is a 2 day induction course before you take up the franchise. You will get your ford focus driving school car during the induction course.

8. You only need to give 30 days notice to end your AA franchise.

9. You will undergo a credit check when applying for a franchise, and there is a deposit (payable by card) when you apply.

10 The AA driving School makes money from its franchise holders, so make sure you get the service you deserve.

AA Instructors in December

2008-12-18T18:02:00.003Z

December is a good time to look for bargain driving lessons with an AA Instructor because it tends to get less busy over the christmas period with many learner drivers taking breaks either because they are going to visit family in other town or cities or because money becomes a bit tight due to present buying.

The AA Driving School does help its franchise instructor holders during the christmas and new year weeks by giving them 2 weeks free from paying any fees, and for establihed ADIs this can help boost their income and earnings, but for newly qualified driving instructors this would be a welcome help especially if they don't have a lot of lessons booked in their dairies.

As a learner driver looking for cheap driving lessons from AA over christmas or if you have a test booked, then approaching an instructor directly could save you some hard earned money while you learn to drive with one of the most popular national driving organisations.

While not all AA driving Instructors will be looking for additional pupils over this festive period, if you search long enough, you will eventually find one of the fully qualified ADIs who could help you with learning to drive at an affordable price.

Get cheaper AA Driving lessons

2008-11-22T16:21:00.002Z

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

2008-11-20T01:38:00.001Z

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

2008-11-17T02:56:00.000Z

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

2008-11-11T15:21:00.001Z

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.

Cheapest AA Driving Lessons

2008-06-28T14:26:00.004+01:00

Cheap AA Instructor Lessons

Are you looking for the cheapest driving lessons offered by the AA Driving School or their instructors, then this website has some news for you! Good quality driving lessons cost money and do not come cheap. AA driving instructors have to pay for the priviledge of using the AA brand and therefore they are not going to be offering the cheapest driving lessons in town.

I had someone call me up in London looking to pay £15 for driving lessons while using an AA driving school car, the Ford Focus! There is a lot of driving schools or driving instructors around, so the competition is fierce, but a good business person will know that there is a limit to how much loss you can bear and your driving school still be profitable.

If you are serious about passing your driving test, you need to stop looking for the cheapest driving lessons in London or whatever town you live in. Driving Lessons are not cheap whatever driving instructor, AA driving school or not.

Driving School summer discount vouchers

2008-06-13T13:58:00.007+01:00

AA Driving School Vouchers

As summer is here, you can now expect to see the driving schools offer vouchers to entice more learners to move over to the AA, when I was an instructor with them, and held a fixed fee franchise they would allocate pupils with buy one get one hour free driving lesson vouchers to me. All you have to do as an AA driving instructor is to make sure you complete the necessary paperwork as the Insite diary can't handle these.

AA Free Driving Lessons Voucher
These were the ones as an Instructor I hated, AA driving school would put adverts in the local papers offering learner drivers or new provisional licence holder the chance of having a free lesson. The way it worked was instead of you being charged £30 for being allocated the new pupil, you are given the pupil free, and you provide the lesson without charge to the learner. The reason I didn't like these was that the majority of the people of took these AA special lessons offer never intended staying, unless the driving instructor was prepared to offer cheap driving lessons. I've even heard of one person with a fake provisional driving licence trying to get driving lessons, thinking that the ADI would not know the diffrence!