As we all know, never in our lifetimes has so much changed so breathtakingly quickly as in the past month with the global coronavirus pandemic. If you’re a driving instructor, I want to hear from you. With in-car training and driving testing/examinations suspended for the indeterminate future, I’m looking to write a blog post about […]
As we all know, never in our lifetimes has so much changed so breathtakingly quickly as in the past month with the global coronavirus pandemic. If you’re a driving instructor, I want to hear from you.
With in-car training and driving testing/examinations suspended for the indeterminate future, I’m looking to write a blog post about what the driver training industry in the US, UK, and anywhere else in the world is doing to cope in these incredibly challenging times. I’ve heard that many schools and instructors are scrambling to convert their classroom lesson plans into online courses. Are you doing this? How has your day-to-day life been affected? What creative tactics are you employing to bring in cash flow? Will you continue these adaptations once the pandemic is over to diversify your business and revenue streams? Or, are you using this opportunity to work on business development and special projects that otherwise always get put on the back burner during normal times?
Also, do you have tips for parents with children learning to drive? Is this a good time for them to be going out and practicing with their kids while the streets are relatively calm? And, assuming that once testing facilities and driving schools reopen that an enormous backlog and demand will ensue, what advice can you give parents and kids facing long delays in getting their driver tests?
Please leave a comment to this post, or better yet, email me at miae@drivingintherealworld.com by April 15. No special formats are needed—just jot down a paragraph or two about your experiences, ideas, and suggestions. Depending on how many of you respond, I’ll do my best to include as many of your comments as I can in the post. Don’t forget to tell me your name, the name of your driving school or organization, and what country you teach in. And feel free to share this post with other colleagues, especially those outside the US; I’m seeking as many perspectives as possible.
Thanks so much in advance for your help, and please stay safe and well.
—Mi Ae
Maria Wojtczak says:
When our Governor issued the stay at home order I immediately shut down our facility. Before the order, we had put in place stricter protocols than our typical sterilization of equipment and vehicles after every student, but we were becoming more and more uncomfortable with having students and parents in our facility and instructors in vehicles with students. Since the shut down we placed all of our employees on furlough and I have been answering the phone, providing people with information and customer service. We also continue to post on social media. One post in particular was how this is a GREAT time to isolate with your teenager and do a LOT of practice driving. The roadways are not as busy and it is safer for teens and parents to get out and practice driving. We did warn them, however, to make sure their students understand that this type of low and realtively easy traffic is not the “norm. Once things begin to return to whatever our new normal will look like, students will require instruction and practice in congested, busy, crazy traffic that typically exists when there is not a pandemic going on. We also put all of our classroom offerings on-line, however, most of our work is done in simulation labs or in-vehicle. At the end of the day, this is one business that cannot conduct business from home. In order for students to get the necessary instruction we need them in a simulation lab with instructors or in a vehicle. There is just so much you can teach someone about driving in a “typical classroom” setting. They need to be behind the wheel experiencing what they are learning. It is why we use simulation labs as our a signficant component of our driver training process.
JC Fawcett says:
Oh wow, where do I begin? Operating a driving school when your business is not considered essential? Even if it was essential, now wouldn’t be the time to put students and instructors in a car where they are sitting a foot a part. In Washington State, the DOL is allowing live web based training to occur for the teen classroom sessions. This makes it so we can do a little, but of course the majority of our business is providing in-car lessons and license tests. All of our receptionists are able to work from home answering phones since we have an internet based phone system. This is helpful since we’re still able to provide immediate customer service. On the other hand, it’s expensive since our revenues are a fraction of what they should be. Our instructors (with the exception of a few that are doing web based classroom training) have been instructed to go on temporary unemployment where they do not have to actively seek employment elsewhere. Hopefully this means they will be available to work for us when the ban is lifted. The biggest financial liability we have is our classroom leases. We have 18 locations that are sitting empty. This will be the case for a minimum of 6 weeks. We also have insurance for cars and buildings that are going unused. There are also car payments. The other issue is that the longer this goes on, the bigger backlog of students we’re going to have when we resume. I believe we’ll make it out of the this alright and that we’ll ultimately be fine, but it’s currently a struggle. Also, not knowing if we’ll be able to start up in a month or if it will be longer makes it difficult to prepare and plan. Having said that, I know there are businesses that will not reopen and that owners will, in some cases, have lost their life savings and be heavily in debt. We’re all in this together.
Mi Ae Lipe says:
Hello, JC, it’s terrific to hear from you and thanks for taking the time to write back! Having so many locations going unused is brutal, and I do hope you’re able to ultimately recover. In some ways, the bigger schools like yours have a bit more of a cushion in terms of critical mass than the small or single-owner ones, but your higher overhead makes for huge drawbacks. I’ll include some of your input in the future post. I’m beginning to hear from some other instructors too, and it’s interesting to hear how there’s a lot of commonality but also some creative thinking going on. Please take care and best of luck to you and Defensive Driving.