Who it is for / Driving instructors / Lost income calculator
A new learner who cannot get hold of you books with the next instructor, and stays with them until their test. Put in your own lesson price and hours to see what the calls you miss during lessons are worth.
4 enquiries × 50% × £38 × 40 hours = £3,040 of lessons. Plus 2 cancellations × £38 = £76.
About £37,392 a year of lessons going to other instructors or left empty.
What it means
At £38 an hour and 40 hours, one new pupil is worth £1,520 of lessons. While You Work costs £49 a month including VAT.
The figures are lesson income, not profit, and they leave out referrals. Change any number to match your diary.
Where the money goes
You cannot answer with a learner at the wheel. Learners and parents often ring a few instructors and book with the first one who answers, so an enquiry you ring back tonight may already have booked. How new pupil enquiries are handled.
A pupil who cancels tomorrow morning’s lesson by voicemail leaves a slot you could have offered to someone wanting more hours, if you had known between lessons. How cancellations are handled.
Questions
Missed new pupil enquiries a month, times the share who would have booked with you, times your hourly lesson price, times the hours a pupil usually takes with you. Then add late cancellations you could have refilled, times your lesson price. Every number is your own.
No. It is lesson income before your car, fuel, insurance and franchise costs. It also leaves out referrals, which is how many instructors find most of their pupils, so the real cost of a lost pupil is usually higher.
There is no official figure to use. GOV.UK says there is no minimum number of lessons and that how many a learner needs depends on how quickly they learn, so put in the hours your own pupils usually take before their test.
A new learner who books with another instructor usually stays with them until their test. One missed enquiry is not one lost lesson, it is every lesson that pupil would have booked with you.
Divide £49 by your lesson price. At £38 an hour, a little over one extra lesson a month covers it. One new pupil who stays for their whole course covers it many times over.
It answers in your school’s name while you teach, asks whether the caller is a new learner, a pupil or a parent, takes their licence, experience and pick-up area, flags cancellations inside 24 hours as urgent, and sends you the details to ring back between lessons.
Source: GOV.UK, Taking driving lessons: there is no minimum number of lessons, and how many a learner needs depends on how quickly they learn.
More for driving instructors: new pupil enquiries, lesson cancellations, lesson types and intensive courses, and what a missed call costs any business.
Founding price locked for as long as you stay. No contract. Your line switches on as soon as you finish the set-up form.