ADI training scams are something that, sadly, I hear about all the time.
There are many great trainers and companies out there who will train you to be successful as a driving instructor. Unfortunately, there are also cowboy companies who just want your cash and couldn’t care less about what happens to you.
None of these points is about any specific school, they are general points to watch out for whoever you choose to train with.
Also, see my pages on the truth about being a driving instructor and driving instructor training secrets.
ADI training scams
Before we continue, I’d like to point out that the word “scam” means different things to different people.
Call it a trick, a misleading thing, a scam, a con or whatever you like. These are just points I think you should know about.
You may not be fully insured in your own car
If you do part 2 or 3 work in your own car then you’re often only insured at 3rd party level and not fully comprehensively. That means that if you crash while training your insurance would only pay out the damage for the other person’s car, not yours. In the event of an injury or damage to your vehicle, you could be left thousands of pounds out of pocket.
You’ll usually be insured at 3rd party level so long as your trainer has part 2 or 3 cover on their own policy. I have heard of trainers that don’t have that which means that all of their training in your car is totally uninsured. They just assume they’ve covered or that you’ve sorted it out.
If you take part 2 training in your own car then you MUST contact your insurers and check that you’re fully covered. Many normal car policies only cover you for social, domestic and pleasure use of your vehicle, not tuition or business use.
It’s incredible how many people contact me for ADI part 2 training and can’t understand why I’m asking them if they’re insured for part 2 work. They call up their insurers and find out that they haven’t been fully insured for any of the sessions they’ve done elsewhere!
If you haven’t taken out part 2 insurance then you may not be covered for the part 2 test in your own car either.
Some trainers know this but won’t tell you. You are legally insured after all but they don’t care that you could lose your car and even be left paying for it on finance for years when you don’t have it.
So long as they get their money for the lesson and save money on their car’s fuel and wear and tear then they’re happy.
Promises of a guaranteed job
This is one of the most popular ADI training scams.
If you’ve been looking into ADI training you’ve no doubt seen things like “Train with us and we GUARANTEE you a job with our school!”.
When you work for a driving school you pay them a set amount to be supplied with a car and work. It’s usually around £150 to £200 per week.
All this “guaranteed job” means is that they guarantee they’ll make you sign a contract to pay their school £150+ a week. What it’s really saying is “Pay us thousands for your training and whether or not you pass we guarantee that we’ll make you pay us thousands more!”.
There’s a very important in the paragraph above that I want to repeat: you have to pay this £150 a week WHETHER OR NOT YOU PASS. Even if you fail the exams you could still be paying out for a franchise you don’t have.
“Guaranteed job” really means “Guaranteed debt”. Once you’ve signed up on a minimum 2 year contract they’ll just throw you in the keep net and forget about you. You’ll often get no work, no contact, nothing at all because once you’ve signed they’ve got you. Keep paying that £150 a week though or else.
You can learn more about this here.
Money back schemes
Have you seen offers like “Train with us and we’ll refund your training”?
The huge catch is that you have to pay between 6 to 24 months of franchise fees to the school no matter whether you pass or fail. Here’s an example of exactly how much this can cost you.
You train with a school and fail at the part 3 stage. This is highly likely to happen as the pass rate for part 3 exams in Birmingham for 2017/18 was just 21.6%.
The next week you get a bill through the post for £7,800. This is because what you unwittingly agreed to was that you’d pay them a years franchise fee at a cost of £150 per week.
If we multiply £150 by the 52 weeks of the year that’s £7800. The fact that you have failed part 3 and have no job doesn’t matter to them. They will start legal proceedings through debt collectors to get the money and it can even result in your home being repossessed. Have a search online and you’ll see that this has happened to people.
It can end up costing a lot more than this. You can be tied into a two year deal with rates higher than £150 per week. Imagine if you signed up for a £200 a week franchise for 24 months; that’s £20,000 you’d owe if they were nice and have you two weeks free each year for holidays.
I don’t think they actually don’t want you to pass your part 3 because then they don’t have the hassle of finding you pupils. They just want your money. This became an even bigger problem when the recession began. The dodgy companies knew people were getting thousands in redundancy payouts and they were out to get it.
Anyone can be a driving instructor trainer
Anybody can legally train someone to be a driving instructor. Some instructor trainers are people that failed ADI courses themselves and had to go into instructor training to pay off their training!
Surely they’d have to be an instructor themselves? No.
Surely they’d need to at least pass a course? No.
Surely they must at least have a driving licence? No!
Anyone can just have a go; even someone who’s never done the job, never passed any of the exams and can’t drive!
The only legal protection you have is that nobody other than a driving instructor can take money for driving tuition. To get around this they either contract ADI part 2 work out to instructors or do that part for “free” and add the cost into ADI part 1 or ADI part 3. The DVSA are trying to close this loophole by making ORDIT compulsory but that’s been going on for years.
You can make big money by selling training. Many people will happily pay £2000 up front so if you can get 10 people you’ve just made £20,000 overnight. Then comes the awful training and the failed exams.
Not all schools and trainers are like this but this is what can happen. I know because I’ve met people that have had it happen to them.
This is one of the ADI training scams that some places like to keep quiet about.
Those that can…
There’s a famous saying “Those that can do. Those that can’t, teach”. It means that people who teach a skill they don’t do themselves often can’t do it. This is very true of ADI training where many trainers are simply driving instructors whose driving school failed.
They tried to run their own school but failed because they were no good. They then decide to make money by teaching others to be instructors. Those few that pass with them then fail and go on to train instructors…
ADI training scams with trainee licences
It might seem a great idea to work as an instructor while you’re practising for ADI part 3. You can earn some money and get experience but there are some drawbacks that schools won’t tell you about.
Once you have your trainee licence you are tied to the school that is sponsoring you. You cannot leave or your licence will be taken away so the school has you right where they want you. They could increase the franchise fee every few weeks and there is nothing you can do. You are stuck with them. The only way out is to find another school that will take over the sponsorship but guess what? They’ll do just the same.
Finance offers or lump sum payments
Finance offers can turn out to be very expensive with offers like “Train now, pay later!” advertised all over the place.
It seems a good idea but the payments can be spread out over 4 years at 29.9% APR.
With that amount of interest you could end up paying back DOUBLE the amount that you borrowed. You pay whether you pass or not. You may fail at part 2 and not even get to ever teach as an instructor but you’ll still owe over £8000.
Contracts
Some schools have contracts that are so hard to understand that you have to pay a solicitor £200 to read through it with you. If you don’t then expect big trouble. You may have just signed up saying you’ll stay with the school for a minimum of 2 years, will pay them a leaving fee or any other silly thing.
Spreading the pupils
The aim of driving schools is to get as many cars on the road to earn more money. You’re lucky to get one new pupil a month sometimes because they spread pupils out so thinly.
If 50 new pupils contact them in one month then they’d rather give 50 instructors 1 pupil each than giving about 10 instructors 5 pupils each.
The angry ADI training scammers
I had an email once from a driving school in Birmingham that was furious about this page. It said things like:
“How are we going to make any money when people like you are telling everyone all the secrets of the trade? It’s bizarre to say that we’re scamming people just because we focus on making money more than teaching people”.
I had to laugh because all it did was confirm what I’d written. I then went and wrote a lot more and made videos about ADI training scams too.
Not all ADI use training scams!
The aim of this page is not to put you off becoming a driving instructor. I just wanted to make you aware of things that I think are important to be wary of. There are many good companies that put good instructors on the road.
My advice to learners is to choose an instructor not just a school. My advice to instructors is to choose a trainer not just a school. Good instructors/trainers can work at schools but the very best ones usually have their own business.
To see some video clips showing what happens during the job and to read the good and bad points visit my page about the good and bad of being a driving instructor.
If you’d like to watch even more videos then visit my YouTube channel.
