Telephone 07713 599396
Choosing a driving school is probably the most important decision that you will have to make and can be a daunting prospect. A quick look in the Yellow Pages shows over 40 driving schools in the Cardiff area alone so how do you go about identifying the one to suit your needs?
The following sections detail some of the ways that people make their choice.
Personal Recommendations
By far the best method is a recommendation from a friend or relative who can give first hand experience.
Recommendations supply us with approx 75% of our work, this is something that we are very proud of. We like to think that all our students are happy with the service and tuition that they receive and without their referrals we simply could not survive.
Lisa Sow, Cardiff
“I learnt to drive with Naeem from 1st steer!! Great instructor…made my lessons a joy and I actually looked forward to them. Makes you laugh at your mistakes!! Made learning to drive fun…with great encouragement along the way! Passed 1st time! Definitely recommended…miss my lessons! Thanks Naeem!”
Jessica Lawrence, Cardiff
“Very good calm instructor, as I was a very Nervous driver 1st Steer helped me to improve my confidence and also pass first time with only 1 minor. I felt every lesson I was learning something new! Very reliable and very good. I had 10 lessons! I highly recommend 1st steer”
Qualifications
Unfortunately the standard of driving tuition and service throughout the industry is not as high as it should be, and for this reason the Driving Standards Agency (the people who conduct your driving test and those that are responsible for overseeing the industry) are looking at introducing continued professional development.
This means that driving instructors will have to complete extra training to maintain or improve standards.
Here at 1st Steer Driving School we take continued professional development very seriously and we have spent a proportion of the lesson fees that we receive on continued development.
Tuition Quality
A proportion of our work is from students that have decided to change from their present school due to a variety of reasons e.g.
“I receive no feedback to enable me to improve”;
“he/she is always late”;
“the tuition car smells of smoke”;
“he/she talks more about themselves than about my driving”.
These are some of the reasons that are given to us when talking to new students.
You have to ask yourself this question – Why do individuals or schools offer cut price or even free lessons?
It could be that they offer a cut price service,
It could be that they are struggling for work, why is this if they are the cheapest in town?
Beware of Gimmicks
There are many ways that driving schools will attract new students, some will offer free lessons, student discounts, and all sorts of gimmicks.
You now have the task of sifting through all these offers, but remember that very few things in life are free and you generally get what you pay for.
You have to ask yourself this question – Why do individuals or schools offer cut price lessons? It could be that they offer a cut price service, it could be that they are struggling for work, why is this if they are the cheapest in town?
In Conclusion
As mentioned previously your choice is a daunting one and your final decision could be a very expensive mistake if you get it wrong.
Whatever your choice, we hope it is the correct one and would like to wish you a positive learning experience along with safe driving for life.
