My boat's better than your boat

I've been chatting to many instructors across the country recently.  And it is interesting to see how the varied ways in which people assess the situation we find ourselves in.  One ADI recently concluded our chat with "We are all in the same storm at sea, and I agree not all in the same boat."

You see, as far as I can make out, we don't all go about business in the same way.  The rate of exposure to people varies quite considerably across driving schools.   I might be exposed to one BIG TOM customer per working day, all week.  And yet, a different driving school might see forty pupils in that same period of time.  Yes, I am aware of the data surrounding taxi/bus drivers and security guards, but how much each ADI is exposed IS relevant.  This isn't going to be like a light switch where one day we all wake up to an "R" of zero or a miraculous vaccine. It is nuanced.  

I welcome that our industry is attempting to grade risk in a thoughtful way.

I do wonder at what point some ADI's would actually be happy to go back to work?  "R" changes with a location so simply saying something like when "R" gets to 0.2 ADI's can work again is too general.  Apparently up north "R" is still running at about 0.9!

But also, factors like BAME, age, health, should be factors too, I would have thought.   Obesity is prevalent in our industry, I certainly fall into this category, and yet it is recognised as a risk factor for C-19.

Whatever PPE and practices were used by DVSA driving examiners for the last seven weeks (when "R" was significantly higher), ADI's can do.  No issues with that. So presumably the DVSA assessed the risk to their examiners in terms of rate of exposure.  And they deemed that as being acceptable.  Therefore, in much the same way, shouldn't the industry now be considering the rate of exposure for different ADI's and how they go about their business?  Seems logical to me.  You can't have one rule for one, and one rule for others.  Critical workers and DVSA examiners are no less susceptible to the virus than other pupils and ADI's.

The other thing, of course, to bear in mind with this situation is how long the government are going to be able to keep paying the self-employed 80%.  Along with the furlough scheme, this must be costing a fortune!