October 1999
Just a Thought
As I sit here and think about my time in this industry and all the things I have accomplished, it is clear to me there are so many things either left undone or that I would love to do. It is often easy for some people to sit back from some lofty perch and state what driver education should or can be. Is there simply one way to define what driver education is and can be? Then there is the question of: How do we get there? Whether anyone likes to hear it or not, money is the key!
Without the dollars necessary to take each driving school or driver education program beyond normal operating expenses, there is no way to do all we should or want to do. In this current day of driver education, each classroom should be equipped with a television, VCR with up to date videos, overhead projector with transparencies, computer with interactive CD ROM's, white board of appropriate size, charts, diagrams and possibly even some type of driving simulation (to be used with computer or other technology). These are all wonderful tools for every driving educator to have when working with and teaching students. These tools are to subordinate the driving educator and the message they have to give. Does every driver education program in the United States or Canada have all of these things? Probably not, due to the fact these items cost a tremendous amount of money.
For many years, it has been very clear to me that all of us who are involved in the creation and implementation of driver education have not preached enough about the dollars required to provide for all that we need to do in order to save lives on our highways. Driver education is many times run on a shoestring budget with no margin for error. This can not continue to happen and be able to provide the quality we know is needed for each new driver that will enter our road systems.
Thirteen (13) years ago, I was charging $199.50 for a complete course of thirty (30) hours of classroom training and six (6) hours of actual driving instruction. My company now charges $300.00 for the same program, with the appropriate upgrades to our program over all of these years. This represents an increase of only about 5% for each of those years respectively.
Quite frankly, with the increasing salaries of my companies driving educators, taxes and all that we have added to our programs, it is still a very low rate based on what our costs are.Based on our current economy in this nation and its fluidity, we are still far below the rate we should be charging for our programs. Vehicles no longer cost $7,500.00 on average. Vehicles are now an average of $15,000.00 or higher and many other things we utilize in this industry have doubled or increased exponentially as well. We set the prices and they should be based on actual costs and not a guessing game as to what the public might be willing to pay this week.
I know that most driver education organizations in this country charge far less than my company does. We all need to stop right now and think about what we are doing and correct our path so that our companies can prosper. Then and only then will we be able to do everything we want and need to do in taking driver education to the appropriate level it must reach and remain.
Driver education can only be defined by all of the professionals who actually teach it and work with it every day of their lives. We are the same professionals who can raise the bar for driver education and road safety, but charging appropriately for a professional service that is second to none is the first key to that end result.