1stDrive.com

Weekly driving lessons

Our weekly courses offer you one or more lessons a week which can be an hour, 90 minutes or 2 hours in length. If you don't have time to fit in an intensive course or prefer to pay weekly then these courses are ideal for you. 

Click here to check the prices in your area

10 Good reasons to do weekly lessons with us

1) We don't use trainee instructors -  Anyone can teach as an instructor for 6 months without being qualified on a trainee licence and due to the credit crunch there are now more trainee instructors than ever. Have you noticed how many driving schools say things on their websites like "We are the fastest growing driving school in the area"? That's because they have no standards and take on anyone to teach, qualified or not. The school doesn't care how bad they are so long as the trainee pays them up to £400 a week out their wages. Over 70% of trainees fail exams meaning they should never have been teaching in the first place.

There are just two of us working together here at 1stdrive because we believe in quality, not quantity. We are both fully qualified with years of experience and hundreds of passes. We have also gone on to pass further tests with senior examiners from the Driving Standards Agency sitting in on some of our lessons and confirming our quality. We have sat in the car on many pupils driving tests (we will never do this unless you ask us to) and have gained knowledge of how tests are marked and conducted. 

We have nothing against trainees themselves, it's the way all this is hidden and kept quiet that we don't like. We believe if you learn with a trainee you should be told up front, if the school isn't being honest about that then what else might they be hiding?

For your own safety, always ask to see your instructors badge as shown below.

  Approved Driving Instructor (ADI). This means an instructor is fully qualified

       Potential driving instructor (PDI). This means an instructor is not qualified or approved

2) We charge by the hour, not by the lesson - Some schools class a lesson as just 50 minutes of driving, not the one hour you're expecting. One school in this area charges £22.50 for a 50 minute lesson. £22.50 divided by 50 minutes means each minute is costing you 45p. 45p times 60 minutes equals £27 per hour!!!

Our lessons are a whole one or 2 hours in length. With us £18 an hour means £18 an hour.

3) No misleading intro offers -  Lots of schools do silly offers like 5 lessons for £50 or 2 for £8.99 but there’s no point in having a few cheap lessons if the price then shoots up. After the intro offer is over you’ll be paying £21+ per hour where as with us the low prices last forever. We'd rather be honest with you and tell you the real price from the start, we don't hide a high price behind a few cheap lessons. Here's an example of how cheap lessons cost more if you took 40 hours to learn.

With others - 5 hours for £56 then 33 hours at £21 then £50 for 2 hours on test day = £799

With us - 1 hour free then 39 hours at £18 per hour flat rate = £702

It's often not the first 5 hours you get cheap but the 1st, 10th, 15th,16th and 17th or similar so you're forced into having a lot of lessons before you get the cheap ones. If you don't get as far as these lessons then you lose the money you have paid for them. Another common trick is that you get hit with a £50 or £100 "test fee" on the day of the test, that's how they make back the money.

With us your first lesson is free and that's it. After this you just pay the same hourly rate forever and there will never be any price rises or hidden extras.

4) We are experts in the Birmingham area. We have been teaching here for years and know every road, all the test routes and have all the local know-how to save you time and money.  Both of us at 1stDrive were born and bred in Birmingham so we really know our stuff! Be wary of instructors coming in to Birmingham from other areas who rely on sat navs to find their way around. You'll spend a lot of time getting lost which will just be wasting your money and they have no knowledge of the test centres.

5) Get the same instructor and car every lesson. We hear about this problem a lot, someone goes to a huge school and they have a different car and instructor every week. The reason is that often you were learning with an unqualified instructor who failed their exams so the school sends you another one! It's very annoying and you have to keep starting all over again. There're just 2 of us here and you'll get the same person each week.

6) No extra charges for evenings or weekends. Lots of schools are starting to charge more for evenings or weekends now and we think it's unfair. Why should you be punished with a penalty for being busy in the day? All our lessons cost the same no matter whether it's an evening, weekend or even a bank holiday.

7) We have a proven record. We are a small school with just 2 instructors yet we've been going for years. That shows you how good we are because if we weren't then nobody would recommend us and we wouldn't survive. 

8) Free mock tests. Once you are ready for a test we will give you as many mock tests as you'd like with no extra charge. We can show you exactly what happens on the day of the test, right down to taking you into your local test centre for a look around. You'll then do a mock test where we simulate the big day down to every last detail.

9) No sales targets. We hear a lot of people saying that after 6 months of lessons they still hadn't even been allowed to book a test even though they were clearly ready to take one and pass. We don't have a head office sending out targets so we'll give you the lessons you need and no more.

10) Learn in top of the range cars. We use the best cars, not the cheapest. Both our cars have push button starts, automatic wipers, automatic lights and much more to make driving easier.

Book your lessons online now

Copyright ©2005-2010 1stDrive.com