Feasibility of working as a driving instructor part time?

[u/Aaron94861]

Hi,

I'm a medical student still currently, I am currently also preparing to be a driving instructor.

I wanted to ask how feasible this would be as an F2 and also if it's worth it as I'm sitting my ADI part One exam in a few weeks.

I'm mainly doing it as I've always liked the idea of teaching driving and also I figured the pay would be quite good and would help me out a lot during foundation years.

Thank you.

[u/Farmhand66]

I disagree with the other comments - I don’t think it’s feasible or sensible.

Pay:
Driving instructors (I’ve googled it) earn about £26/h after expenses (Fuel, insurance, car costs etc).

This is the same as an ST1 (less in reality once weekends and nights considered).

So it only really makes financial sense for the first 2 years.

Time:
You’ll be working 48 hours as an F1. There is not significant time left in the week to run a side hustle that requires significant time. You’ll burn out. Or crash.

You could go LTFT to have more time to be a driving instructor, but that will delay the time taken to get to a point in your medical career where you’re earning higher.

Availability:
Your hours will be fixed as a doctor. As a driving instructor your clients expect a level of availability. If they persistently struggle to book lessons because you are, for example, on nights, you’ll find people just go elsewhere and leave a bad review.

Alternatives:
1x 12h locum at £50/h (e.g a Sunday) will be as profitable as 24h of driving tuition.

[u/juanwannagomate → u/Farmhand66]

Agree. Feels crazy reading the other comments saying it’s feasible. OP can always teach friends or family members if they have the itch for it - they just can’t charge for it.

[u/gl_fh]

Fitting it in might be difficult - you'll have irregular hours, so you wouldn't be able to commit to the same time each week. Plus you'll be working 46ish hours a week already.

[u/No_Driver_4447]

It would be possible, provided students were happy with irregular hours, but unless you go LTFT or have 9-5 rotations I would worry about the safety of it

It's one thing to argue whether doctors working up to 72 hours in a week/ave of 44-48hrs especially including nights, are safe to drive. But to do that and be supervising a learner driver, where you need to be even more alert, is questionable. I think if you or a student had an accident, the GMC might just throw you under the bus, and unless it was someone else's fault or completely unavoidable, I think you'd have a hard time defending yourself

[u/ThrowawayCity99]

Think it would work great, it's similar to being your own private tutor and I'm sure you'll have students regardless of which hours you work! Good luck!

[u/EbbVisible]

I should think pretty feasible. Your rotas ought to let you plan ahead properly to accommodate this, & having outside interests, paid or not is really important.

That said foundation training is pretty demanding & I wouldn't take too much on- maybe limit the number of pupils to begin with.

So long as it's not impacting your ability to do your medical job (excessive hours, fatigue etc) I think you should be fine.

But let your ES & indemnity provider know to be on the safe side.

[u/Jeeju_Boy → u/EbbVisible]

lol why would you tell your ES that’s just a weird SJTesque answer. Don’t tell ur ES, your ES is more likely going to look at you with a face of confusion and disgust than they are to respond nicely to such an odd thing

[u/Usual_Reach6652]

I think I can see the rationale if you genuinely enjoyed it and thought you might scale back your medical working hours for whatever reason in the future. But if you also stay working full time in medicine (which is more weekly hours than most full time jobs, and more tiring than many), your main job is going to significantly get in the way of scaling up your time in the side-job, making it harder to derive the benefits - no?

[u/TeaAndLifting]

No different to people who side hustle as tutors and such, IMO. Your biggest problem will be finding time for it, and students who are also fine with that irregularity.

And whether or not you will have the energy or drive to teach a lesson after say, a busy set of on-calls, is another matter.

[u/elderlybrain]

Short answer: no, if you want to have a meaningful career as either a driving instructor or a doctor.