You have reached the magic age of seventeen and want to learn to drive (United Kingdom). It is expensive and you want to be as certain as you can that the money you spend on the driving lessons is not wasted. You first need to find a driving instructor and then ask suitable questions of him/her.
There are lots of directories on the web that have listings of driving instructors and schools. The biggest I have found is the Driving Schools Directory who literally cover many thousands of UK towns. Enter your town name in the ’search box’ and you will be presented with a listing schools that cover your area. Take notes of those that may be interesting to you.
When you make contact, you will want to be sure that they have full qualifications and not ‘trainee’ instructors. You can tell this by the type of badge (licence) they hold. A fully qualified driving instructor will have a green octagonal licence displayed whereas a trainee will have a pink triangular badge.
Most schools will offer a discount for booking a number of lessons or if you are a student. Some will also offer money off of lessons based on your profession e.g. students. Be sure to ask about these discounts.
Don’t forget though that cheap isn’t always the best and you could end up taking more lessons than required, thereby costing you more cash in the long run. So, once you start your training, do not be shy to change or try out another driving school if you are not delighted for whatever reason.
Some of these reasons could be a personality clash, shouting, turning up late, using the lesson time to stop off at shops/do errands, stopping to use their mobile (illegal whilst driving), a dirty (smelly!) car etc.
Don’t forget, you are paying a lot of money and should therefore expect a high level of service.
