About the franchise

The best driving school franchise in the business

The majority of driving instructors in the UK are self-employed and we believe that we offer the most competitive and appealing franchise in the market today. We believe nobody can offer you;

• better value for money
• higher earnings potential
• more job satisfaction
• lower franchise costs and wider choice of car with no long term tie-ins

You only have to compare our weekly membership fee of £75, flexible car choice and our course/lesson rates with those of the AA, BSM, Red or Bill Plant etc., to appreciate why you could potentially earn up to £5,000 more per year with us. Better still should you stay with us for 12 months or more we reduce it to £66 per week as a thank you for your loyalty.

Some national schools only provide a car and franchise package together. Driving schools will sell this option as the easiest and worry free option for running your business. What they won’t highlight to you is this is by far the most expensive option. You are also often required to sign a lengthy franchise contract of 18 - 36 months with no real guarantee of work from them. Think about this - if you are contracted to paying £250 per week for 2 years you will end up paying the driving school £26,000! LDC do not combine the franchise agreement with a car rental agreement - the two are separate. This enables you to keep the car (after removing any LDC car livery) but leave the franchise if you wish. In this way you can choose your own means to provide a car in addition to those we can arrange for you such as car rental or purchase. For those instructors that prefer to rent a driving school car we are able to offer access to a range of suitable vehicles. These vehicles will have a generous mileage allowance (e.g. 30,000 miles per annumn), include road tax, servicing, maintenance, replacement tyres and breakdown cover.

The commitment to a long term expensive franchise with car hire contract offered by some of our competitors is why some driving schools appear to be able to offer cheaper instructor training initially. They know that once you buy their course no other driving school will take you on a trainee licence so you will have no choice but to be tied into their much more expensive long term franchise with car hire contract even though they will say you don't need to join them. Its that simple. Possibly save a few hundred pounds now to cost you several thousand pounds later - with no guarantee you will even get sufficient work to pay for this extra cost. At least with LDC after 3 months of qualifying you can leave at anytime with just 1 months notice.
 
LDC hourly lesson and course rates are also usually higher then than those of our competitors thus enabling you to earn even more. Each extra pound per hour adds over £1,700 to your annual income. For example, our intensive course rates will earn you an extra £5 to £10 more per hour from the published minimum LDC hourly lesson rate for the area in which you work thus boosting your earnings still further. In addition, our more experienced instructors often charge an hourly rate above the published minimum LDC rate for their area, thus rewarding them for their additional experience.

In a few short months you could be one of them earning £35 to £50 per hour doing a job that you love.

Below are just some of the reasons why we claim this.

• Only £75 per week franchise membership fee reduced to £66 after 12 months (includes an annual supply of 50 LDC Driving Skills Workbooks worth £1250 i.e. £24 per week). If you take these materials provided into account the weekly fee is in fact only £60 per week; £42 per week after 12 months.
• First months franchise fee is free if you train with us to become a driving instructor.
• No long term franchise agreement tie in, upon qualification you need only stay for 3 months and thereafter just give one months notice to leave - not 12 - 36 months as with most others.
• Wide choice of car. You can use your own car (if suitable), buy a new car from us at a significant discount (up to 22%), buy a pre-owned car or choose a fully maintained driving school car rental. The purchase discount saving alone could easily equate to one years worth of franchise fees including the cost of the course.
• Dedicated call centre to generate work, however, most work will come direct to you - see next items.
• Personalised car livery with your name, mobile number and website address to help generate work direct to you.
• Personalised marketing with your LDC driving school website, business Facebook and Google business pages through our main website and on the web generally to help generate even more work direct to you.
• Earn additional income from selling/renting LDC products.
• Unique online LDC instructor's/learner's Hub and Apps to help you run and promote your business and follow your pupils theory/driving progress.
• Unique LD System to help you offer quality tuition at premium hourly rates - up to £50 per hour plus an extra £5 - £10 per hour on course sales.
• Personal face-to-face support on the many facets of successfully operating a quality driving school business from leading experts - you are not alone.
• Learn from the best how to operate a driving school at the quality end of the market.

We offer a genuine opportunity to be your own boss and run your own independent LDC driving school franchised business with all the support necessary to help ensure you succeed at the quality end of the driver training market place. Get the benefit of being independent but with a highly reputable franchise behind you, working as part of a quality team together to ensure your future earnings and well being. If you want to be the best than learn from the best here at LDC. We offer the best of both worlds being independent and owning a franchise. No need to reinvent the wheel or waste time keeping abreast of developments or learning the hard/costly way. Let us take the the strain while you make the gain.

The modern way to operate your franchise business
 

The diagram above helps to illustrate how we work with our franchised LDC driving school owners directing much of the work straight to them and the diagram below illustrates how we give them the tools to run their business effectively and independently. We also have a paper system you can utilise to run along side or instead of our digital sytems. Gone are the old fashioned days were the school controls everything for you making you totally dependent upon them for work and/or a car as a means to keep you onboard paying a franchise/car rental fee - never benefiting from your own name and reputation. LDC driving instructors can be as independent as they want building their own personal reputation as well as the LDC brand generally.

Driving school franchise comparison table

As a qualified driving instructor here is a list of the key differences between LDC and other national driving school franchises.

Potential earnings example at a lesson rate of £38 per hour.

WEEKLY GROSS INCOME (48 weeks)

WEEKLY EXPENDITURE (Including VAT)

The example above is equivalent to an annual pre-tax income of £50,800 after expenses with a company car assuming you delivered an average of 36 hours of tuition per week with 4 weeks holiday per year.

Naturally, the above earnings potential will be proportionally lower or higher depending on the lesson rate you decide to charge or are able to command in practice in your area. It would probably be unrealistic to expect this earnings potential in the first year. However, it does serve to illustrate how to calculate your potential earnings as an LDC driving school instructor franchise owner. If you purchased a car the income shown below would need to be increased by around £2,000 per annum or indeed much more if you used a second hand or older vehicle for your business. This car flexibility is only possible with a national driving school like LDC.

Potential earnings table based on hourly rate charged (36 hours per week)

Wide choice of car - Use your existing car, buy new or secondhand or rent a fully maintained driving school car

LDC driving school instructors use a wide range of car. Below you can see VW Golf, Audi A3, Mercedes-Benz A-Class, Ford Focus, Nissan Micra, Vauxhall Corsa, Peugeot 208, Ford Fiesta, BMW Mini, SEAT Leon and many many more. Choose a car to suit you whether it is your existing car or one you purchase (new or second hand) with our help or one you rent. Dual controls can usually be fitted for between £400 and £600 to most cars suitable for driving tuition.

What car should I use for my Business?

The simple answer to this is any make or model of car that you like, as long as the car has the ability to have dual controls fitted (this is an insurance requirement), is in a clean and tidy condition, good service history, valid MOT and under 100,000 miles.

LDC instructors source their driving school vehicle from a number of different avenues. The LDC car department will help you find the most cost effective way for you to source your driving school car. Some purchase a brand new car, some purchase a second hand vehicle, some already have a suitable car, some lease through their local dealership on either a HP or PCP contract and some rent a fully maintained driving school car. The choice is yours to make.

You do not need to have a brand new car to operate as a driving instructor and we support our instructors who wish to use an older vehicle. Naturally as a business owner, you want to reduce your business outgoings so you can have more money in your pocket. Some national driving schools insist you only use a car provided by them as part of a combined car and franchise package – not only is this usually more expensive but they coerce their franchisees into expensive and lengthy contracts for up to three years. Think about this - if you are contracted to paying £250 per week for two years you will end up paying the school an eye watering figure of £26,000 with no guarantee of income to meet these payments! Also look out for promises of additional training if you sign up to the franchise - surely the training course you have already purchased should be sufficient enough for you to pass the three required exams with no need to sign a long term contract for extra training?

Thinking of training with another company and then joining LDC?

Please note we only offer Trainee Licence positions and our incredible free start-up package worth over £1,000 to students who have fully trained with us. However, we do consider applicants who are already fully qualified subject to their grade, experience and the purchase of extra training to become proficient in our unique training methods and way of working. It will cost you an extra £500 to join LDC if you train elsewhere.

Next step

If you would like more details at this stage by post or email please complete the free information pack request form or call us FREE on 0800 197 0010 and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.