What happens to my driving school if we go into lockdown again?

We previously talked about steps driving instructors could take to prepare for the end COVID-19. Now the country is open to driving lessons again, but cases are rising in our cities, meaning chances of a second wave of the Coronavirus epidemic feels really possible. We share what that means for driving lessons.

Firstly, some cities have already had city-wide, local lockdowns. When that happened, driving lessons were able to continue. Manchester had a local lockdown and lessons continued. Aberdeen went into local lockdown before Scotland had even opened up driving lessons, but when lessons returned, they returned in Aberdeen too.

All this is to say, it is unlikely that driving lessons will be stopped again. What it seems governments are most focussed on is reducing social gathering, like groups of people at parties or in bars.

However, in the unlikely event of a full lockdown, the government would need to help citizens through their furlough scheme.

To ensure you can receive furlough to a decent degree, keep up to date books. Capture every fee paid by your learners, every expense paid like your fuel and document these expenses officially. How much you receive from furlough is based on evidence from your books. Keep them up to date and backdate them as much as possible, as evidence must be from months prior.

If full lockdown does occur, here are some things you can do to ease things.

Teach key workers

At GoRoadie, we saw hundreds of key workers come through looking for driving lessons. We removed our small fee usually required to accept a pupil, to help key workers and instructors during the first lockdown.

If you're an instructor and you're able and willing to teach key workers, be sure to sign up for your free account.

Learn new skills

We spoke with Mian Qasim during the first lockdown and he inspired us with what he did to improve himself during that time, so that he was able to come out of the other side with a stronger business.

He started doing theory test workshops with existing and new pupils during lockdown, as well as started creating video content for his pupils. He spent the time learning how to create courses and how to edit videos, and you can too.

As the Standards Check is now about coaching skills, you can also consider practicing and refreshing these skills. Maybe try an online course or work through some examples to keep yourself sharp.

Take on other types of work

You can find a host of potential jobs that would fit with your skillset in this article. There are a wide variety, including things you might not expect, such as support work.

You should also consider training a new generation of driving instructors. You know more than anyone that it takes a lot to learn your Part 3 licence. You can educate those interested, offer remote coaching sessions and guidance, even over the phone.

Prepare your business so you're ready for lockdown lifting

We wrote an article on preparing for the end of COVID-19 restrictions, so we recommend a read of that.

We recently spoke with instructor Neil David who said of GoRoadie "I picked up a dozen or so new clients during lockdown, so when the restrictions were eased, I was able to start back up with a full diary almost straight away!"

Since GoRoadie is free to sign up and the first pupil you accept is free, there is no risk to giving us a go.