Regional Stats

The following may be of interest to anyone training to be a Driving Instructor (or considering it) who may be monitoring my blog (according to the DSA there are 26 people on Trainee Licence’s in the ‘PE’ region as of 6/8/12).

The Office of National Statistics indicate that in the Local Authority of Peterborough (pop. 173,400 in 2010, projected 180,000 in 2012) there are 8,500 16-19yr olds.

The DSA  indicate that in the year 2011-2012 there were 4,125 practical tests undertaken by Peterborough Test Centre for 17,18 & 19 yr olds.   (In fact, for the age group of 17 – 25 yr olds, 17, 18 & 19 yr olds accounted for 70% of all tests in that year).

As the minimum age for taking the practical test for the vast majority is 17, then there does seem to be some broad correlation between the above two figures.

The DSA also indicate that as of 6/8/12 there are 610 registered Driving Instructors covering the ‘PE’ postcode. 

For the last 2 years, Peterborough Test Centre has conducted approx. 4000 car Learner tests for ‘first attempts’ per year.  The pass rate for ‘second attempts’ is marginally higher than that achieved by ‘first attempts’.

As such, in broad terms, on a yearly basis, there is a ratio of about 7 Learners to each Driving Instructor.  You can see that the supply dramatically exceeds demand in the region.   (Note that any paid driving instruction that is occurring by unregistered Instructors will only exacerbate this figure).   There will of course be re-tests due to the less than 50% national pass rate, and also there will be some hopping around by Learners from one Instructor to another.  The situation is further compounded by any promotions that are offered by Instructors to try to increase their slice of the above ratio.  This in turn further devalues the industry by contributing to the decline of income earned per Learner.