Whether you are self-employed, or employed by a driving school, a bit of extra income can always sound appealing. During a cost of living crisis, fuel prices rocketing and people tightening their belts, driving instructors particularly are feeling the pinch. According to International Business Times, many learners have cut back on driving lessons, spread them out over a longer period of time, or even paused them altogether, due to increasing costs being passed on through lesson prices. Of course, this directly ties to the income of driving instructors, leading to a decrease in bookings – not to mention a decrease in earnings for instructors who are absorbing the extra costs of fuel.
For those reasons alone, many driving instructors are looking for ways to make additional income alongside their main job. We have compared a range of low to high effort side hustles for driving instructors, to help bring in that extra little bit of cash.
There are many ways your knowledge, skills and expertise can be monetised, and a reliable way of having a steady income stream is to create and sell digital lessons or downloadable content. This could include driving skill checklists, road sign flash cards, or video tutorials that can be purchased. You can set up a free Canva account and create digital assets and then list them as a purchasable digital download on Etsy. Because they are all digital downloads, you don’t need to worry about shipping any physical products, so the products take care of themselves!
There are many well-known driving instructors who have made a name for themselves by creating content and sharing it online. Platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok encourage creators to share their experiences online, and in exchange you can monetise your content and earn income from increasing your views. If you manage to grow your online audience, you could explore partnerships with other brands, such as paid commissions to create content or promote/review products. Fluxnote suggested “a YouTuber can earn £2-£8 per 1,000 views, while a TikToker might make £0.30-£0.75 per 1,000 views. Brand deals are another key revenue source, with fees varying by follower count.”
There are many different types of content you could record, for example you could share videos of yourself demonstrating how to do certain manoeuvres or tackle tricky situations. Another content style that is popular with driving creators, is to share dashcam footage, or record driving lessons (if your students are comfortable with this*). This is a simple way to create content without much extra effort; you can just record whatever you are already doing and then edit and upload this later. It’s great way of sharing real life driving experiences, giving you the opportunity to teach reactive driving and unique scenarios.
The other benefit of recording your lessons is that it helps humanise your content, by showing your interactions with your students. This can make content more entertaining and also helps market your services. Nervous prospective students will be able to gauge if you will be a good match based on your communication and teaching styles.
*It is essential that you get each student’s consent before recording their lessons and sharing it online. If your student is under 18, you will need to get permission from their parent or guardian too.
Another low effort way to generate additional income is to sign up to a referral scheme and become an affiliate. There are lots of affiliate schemes online that are looking for people to refer customers to them, and in exchange you can receive a commission or other rewards. You don’t need to be a famous creator to join most affiliate schemes, however if you have an online presence, you will be able to promote your affiliate codes to a wider audience. Being an affiliate can be as simple as promoting products on Amazon, for example, L Plates, road safety kits, or learning to drive books.
You could also look at other referral schemes, such as car insurance referral schemes. Many insurance companies, such as Collingwood Insurance, offer a referral scheme for driving instructors who recommend learner driver insurance to their students. Collingwood Insurance offers a cash reward to instructors for every pupil that purchases learner driver insurance using their instructor’s referral code, with uncapped referrals – meaning the more students you successfully refer, the more commission you will earn. When you partner with Collingwood Insurance, you will be given the opportunity to order free marketing materials such as business cards and flyers to help you promote your affiliate code.
Becoming an affiliate can be incredibly simple, lots of companies offer a sign-up form on their website, and you could start earning straight away!
One simple way to increase your income as a driving instructor is to offer a Pass Plus or refresher course. One of the many benefits to offering a Pass Plus course is that you have already established a rapport with your students and it can be a good way to extend your time booked with them – even after they have passed their test. A Pass Plus course is beneficial to students as it can help grow their confidence on the road, and according to the DVSA, a Pass Plus certificate could help lower their car insurance costs. Pass Plus is an easy way to utilise your existing audience, offering additional lessons to your current students, as well as expanding to a whole new host of customers. Not all driving instructors offer Pass Plus, so you may attract new drivers who are looking elsewhere after passing their test.
Similarly, refresher courses are another useful way to expand your offerings without straying from your preferred skills and expertise. Refresher courses do exactly what they say on the tin – refresh the skills and confidence of someone who hasn’t driven for a while but has passed their test.
Both options follow similar structures to regular driving lessons, making them a simple addition to expand your services, with minimal effort from yourself.
If you feel as though you have students queuing up left and right to get lessons from you already, and the only thing holding you back is not having enough time in the day, why not consider opening your own driving school? You could expand your offerings by recruiting other driving instructors who could work under you, building on your reputation to increase your services and in turn, your income. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, you can read more about how to set up your own driving school here.
Following on from franchising, recruiting new ADI’s will require training them. With a national shortage of qualified driving instructors, and a huge backlog of students waiting for a lesson, there has never been a better time to step up and be a part of training the next force of ADI’s. The DVSA states there are no additional requirements to become an ADI trainer, but you must register as an ORDIT trainer. You could offer this alongside your regular driving lessons- you may even find you prefer it and choose to specialise instead!
Similar to offering lessons for ADI’s, there is a rising demand for lessons for students who need additional support. According to DriveAll, “Every year approximately 1.5 million young people take their driving test. 50,000 of these learner drivers will have a disability and 4 in 5 of those disabilities will be hidden.” With the UK government acknowledging a rise in diagnoses of neurodivergence and anxiety, many students struggle with the traditional structure of driving lessons, and differently abled students may require adaptations.
Companies such as Driving Mobility offer Disability Awareness and Vehicle Adaptations training courses for ADI’s, helping driving instructors increase their skills and expand their services to those in need of specialist lessons. Once you have qualified and are confident, you could start offering specialised lessons, giving you a unique selling point and attracting a new market of customers, whilst ultimately doing something even more rewarding. If the idea of offering disability friendly lessons feels too daunting, why not consider specialised anxiety courses for nervous drivers? Briefly Counseling suggests that 40% of young people delay learning to drive due to nerves. This can be a good way to build your own confidence training students who might need extra support.
Once you are a driving instructor, you know the drill – most driving lessons require a similar set of skills, manoeuvres and scenarios. Why not consider expanding your lessons to fleet driver training? Many companies enrol their employees onto fleet driver training courses, to ensure they are road safe. There are many different aspects to fleet training, you can find the government approved fleet training providers and more information here.
You already have a car and drive for a living, so delivery driving may feel like a natural next step for you. You will need to make sure you have correct insurance for this, but delivery driving in your spare time can be a simple way to make some extra cash between lessons, or on an evening.
There are many side hustles and ways you can explore increasing your income as a driving instructor. From sharing online content, to courier driving in your spare time, there are plenty of ideas within this blog to inspire you!
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Commonly asked questions about how to earn additional income through side hustles as a driving instructor
You will need to check with HMRC to see if your additional income needs declaring.
As a driving instructor, you could sell digital content such as driving lesson plans for other ADI’s, driving skill checklists for students, and other general downloadable content such as road trip checklists.
Yes! You can easily record driving techniques and tutorials, or share dashcam or lesson footage on your social media account and if you gain traction online and grow your audience, you could start to monetise your content.
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