[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":360},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-\u002Fblog\u002Finstructors\u002Fdriving-instructor-franchise-vs-independent-cost":3,"blog-siblings-\u002Fblog\u002Finstructors\u002Fdriving-instructor-franchise-vs-independent-cost":326},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"category":310,"cover":311,"date":312,"description":313,"extension":314,"image":315,"meta":316,"navigation":317,"path":318,"seo":319,"stem":320,"takeaways":321,"__hash__":325},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Finstructors\u002Fdriving-instructor-franchise-vs-independent-cost.md","Driving Instructor Franchise or Independent: What a Pupil Really Costs","Servicedrome Team",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":299},"minimark",[10,14,19,22,25,29,32,35,58,61,65,68,71,123,126,129,132,141,145,148,151,155,158,218,221,224,228,231,251,255,273,296],[11,12,13],"p",{},"Every driving instructor pays to get pupils. The only choice is how: a fixed weekly fee to a school, a small fee each time you talk to a learner, or a larger fee only when one books you. This guide puts the three next to each other with real numbers, including the ones we charge, so you can do the sum for your own diary.",[15,16,18],"h2",{"id":17},"what-a-pupil-is-worth","What a pupil is worth",[11,20,21],{},"Start with the value, because every cost below is a fraction of it. A learner who passes in the UK takes something like 40 to 45 hours of professional lessons on average, and many take more. At £40 an hour, which is the median price instructors on Servicedrome offer, a pupil who stays with you to the test is worth £1,600 to £1,800 in lessons. Even a pupil who leaves after ten hours is £400.",[11,23,24],{},"Hold that number. Spending £50 to find a £1,600 pupil is a good deal. Spending £200 a week to find pupils you could have found for £50 is not.",[15,26,28],{"id":27},"option-one-the-franchise","Option one: the franchise",[11,30,31],{},"A driving school franchise is the traditional route. You pay the school a weekly fee and it passes you pupils from its own marketing. Fees advertised in 2026 mostly sit between £150 and £250 a week, and the better-known schools charge at the top of that. Some include a dual-control car and its insurance in the fee, which matters: if yours does, part of that money is the car, not the pupils.",[11,33,34],{},"Over a year the fee alone is £7,800 to £13,000. Three things about it are easy to miss when you sign.",[36,37,38,46,52],"ul",{},[39,40,41,45],"li",{},[42,43,44],"strong",{},"It is due every week."," A quiet fortnight in January, a week off, a car in the garage: the fee runs. A franchise is a cost of being available, not a cost of teaching.",[39,47,48,51],{},[42,49,50],{},"The pupils are the school's, not yours."," Reviews go on the school's page. If you leave, the pupils stay. Word of mouth builds the school's name on your work.",[39,53,54,57],{},[42,55,56],{},"You do not choose the pupils."," The school fills your diary with whoever asked, in whatever area, at whatever price the school set.",[11,59,60],{},"If the fee includes a car you would otherwise lease, take the lease cost off before comparing. For most instructors that still leaves a large weekly cost that exists purely to supply pupils.",[15,62,64],{"id":63},"option-two-pay-per-lead","Option two: pay per lead",[11,66,67],{},"On a lead marketplace, learners post what they want and you reply with a price. On Servicedrome's pay-per-lead plan, sending a reply costs credits, and you get the learner's contact details straight away.",[11,69,70],{},"At the time of writing the prices are:",[72,73,74,87],"table",{},[75,76,77],"thead",{},[78,79,80,84],"tr",{},[81,82,83],"th",{},"What you reply to",[81,85,86],{},"Credits",[88,89,90,99,107,115],"tbody",{},[78,91,92,96],{},[93,94,95],"td",{},"A request where the learner shared their phone number",[93,97,98],{},"15",[78,100,101,104],{},[93,102,103],{},"A request with chat only",[93,105,106],{},"12",[78,108,109,112],{},[93,110,111],{},"A request a few days old with no replies yet, number shared",[93,113,114],{},"7",[78,116,117,120],{},[93,118,119],{},"The same, chat only",[93,121,122],{},"6",[11,124,125],{},"Credits are bought in packs. The smallest, 20 credits for £9, works out at 45p a credit; the 100-credit pack at £29 is 29p; the 1,000-credit pack at £199 is 20p. So a full-price reply costs between £3 and £6.75 depending on the pack, and about £4.35 on the pack most instructors buy.",[11,127,128],{},"Two rules soften that. Every new instructor starts with 70 free credits, which is four or five full-price replies. And if the learner has not opened your offer and has not shared their number within seven days, the credits are refunded. You only pay for replies that reached someone.",[11,130,131],{},"What a pupil costs on this plan depends entirely on how many replies it takes to win one. We do not publish a conversion rate, because most hires happen by phone after the number is shared and never get recorded. But the arithmetic is forgiving. If it took you ten full-price replies to land one regular pupil, that pupil cost £44 on the 100-credit pack. Twenty replies, £87. That is less than one week of most franchise fees, for a pupil worth £1,600.",[11,133,134,135,140],{},"The catch is that you have to do the replying, and do it well. The typical request on the platform gets one reply, and half of requests get their first within a quarter of an hour. Pay per lead rewards instructors who are quick and who write a few lines for each learner; it punishes nobody, but it does nothing for an instructor who replies once a month. Our guide on ",[136,137,139],"a",{"href":138},"\u002Fblog\u002Finstructors\u002Fhow-to-get-pupils-new-driving-instructor","getting your first pupils"," goes through the habits that make it work.",[15,142,144],{"id":143},"option-three-pay-per-hire","Option three: pay per hire",[11,146,147],{},"The other Servicedrome plan removes the risk from replying. On pay per hire, sending offers is free, up to 15 in any two-week window, and you pay once, when a learner chooses you and you accept. The fee is 80 credits: £23 on the 100-credit pack, £16 on the largest, £36 on the smallest.",[11,149,150],{},"The trade is contact. Until you accept the hire, the learner's phone number and yours stay hidden on both sides, and the conversation happens in the app. On pay per lead the number is there from the first reply, and most learners prefer to be called. So pay per hire costs less per pupil and wins fewer of the pupils who want a quick phone call. It suits an instructor with a part-full diary who would rather pay nothing until a booking is certain. You can switch plans in settings once every 30 days.",[15,152,154],{"id":153},"the-three-side-by-side","The three side by side",[11,156,157],{},"Take an instructor who wants four new regular pupils over a quarter. Rough costs, using mid-range figures:",[72,159,160,173],{},[75,161,162],{},[78,163,164,167,170],{},[81,165,166],{},"Route",[81,168,169],{},"What you pay",[81,171,172],{},"Cost for four pupils",[88,174,175,186,197,207],{},[78,176,177,180,183],{},[93,178,179],{},"Franchise at £180 a week",[93,181,182],{},"Fee every week, pupils supplied",[93,184,185],{},"£2,340 over the quarter, whether you get four or two",[78,187,188,191,194],{},[93,189,190],{},"Pay per lead, 10 replies per pupil won",[93,192,193],{},"About £4.35 per reply",[93,195,196],{},"About £175",[78,198,199,202,204],{},[93,200,201],{},"Pay per lead, 20 replies per pupil won",[93,203,193],{},[93,205,206],{},"About £350",[78,208,209,212,215],{},[93,210,211],{},"Pay per hire",[93,213,214],{},"£23 per pupil who books",[93,216,217],{},"About £93",[11,219,220],{},"The franchise column is not a trick. Four pupils a quarter from a franchise would be a poor return, and a good school supplies more than that. But the fee is the same when it supplies fewer, and the comparison is what you pay to find a pupil, not what you pay to be on a list.",[11,222,223],{},"Against a pupil worth £1,600, pay per lead at the pessimistic end costs about 5% of the lessons. Pay per hire costs about 1.5%. A franchise at £180 a week needs to supply you a new pupil roughly every fortnight just to match the pessimistic pay-per-lead figure.",[15,225,227],{"id":226},"who-should-still-take-a-franchise","Who should still take a franchise",[11,229,230],{},"Some instructors should, and it is worth being plain about it.",[36,232,233,239,245],{},[39,234,235,238],{},[42,236,237],{},"You are a trainee (PDI) who wants supervision."," Some schools include training and a mentor. That has a value a marketplace does not offer.",[39,240,241,244],{},[42,242,243],{},"You want the car in the deal."," If you cannot or would rather not lease a dual-control car yourself, a franchise that includes one is a single payment for both problems.",[39,246,247,250],{},[42,248,249],{},"You want to teach and nothing else."," Replying to requests, writing offers and asking for reviews is work. Some instructors would rather pay £180 a week not to do it. That is a legitimate choice as long as you know what it costs.",[15,252,254],{"id":253},"going-independent-in-order","Going independent, in order",[256,257,258,261,264,267,270],"ol",{},[39,259,260],{},"Sort the car and insurance first. It is the biggest cost of being independent and the one a franchise hides.",[39,262,263],{},"Set up a profile where learners actually post requests. Finish it: photo, a few sentences, every area you cover, your prices. On Servicedrome that pays the second 20 free credits.",[39,265,266],{},"Start on pay per lead with the free credits, reply fast and reply properly, and keep a note of how many replies each pupil took. After a month you will have your own conversion rate, and the table above becomes your table.",[39,268,269],{},"Ask the first happy pupils for a review. Reviews on your own profile are the asset a franchise never lets you build.",[39,271,272],{},"Keep the franchise if you must, but make it earn its fee. Count the pupils it actually sent last quarter and divide. If the answer is more than you would pay per pupil on a marketplace, you have your answer.",[11,274,275,276,280,281,285,286,290,291,295],{},"Most lesson requests on Servicedrome come from ",[136,277,279],{"href":278},"\u002Fdriving-instructors\u002Flondon","London",", with ",[136,282,284],{"href":283},"\u002Fdriving-instructors\u002Flondon\u002Fbromley","Bromley",", ",[136,287,289],{"href":288},"\u002Fdriving-instructors\u002Flondon\u002Fislington","Islington"," and ",[136,292,294],{"href":293},"\u002Fdriving-instructors\u002Flondon\u002Fcamden","Camden"," among the busiest boroughs, and a growing share from the commuter towns around it.",[11,297,298],{},"Prices in this guide are Servicedrome's at the time of writing, November 2026, and can change; the price of a reply or a hire is always shown in the app before you confirm. Franchise fees are the range advertised publicly by UK schools in 2026 and vary by school and region.",{"title":300,"searchDepth":301,"depth":301,"links":302},"",2,[303,304,305,306,307,308,309],{"id":17,"depth":301,"text":18},{"id":27,"depth":301,"text":28},{"id":63,"depth":301,"text":64},{"id":143,"depth":301,"text":144},{"id":153,"depth":301,"text":154},{"id":226,"depth":301,"text":227},{"id":253,"depth":301,"text":254},"Instructors","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fdriving-instructor-franchise-vs-independent-cost.svg","2026-11-02","A franchise fee, a lead marketplace and pay per hire, costed side by side for a UK driving instructor, with the numbers Servicedrome charges in 2026.","md","\u002Fog\u002Fdefault.png",{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Finstructors\u002Fdriving-instructor-franchise-vs-independent-cost",{"title":5,"description":313},"blog\u002Finstructors\u002Fdriving-instructor-franchise-vs-independent-cost",[322,323,324],"A franchise fee of £150 to £250 a week is £8,000 to £13,000 a year, paid whether or not the diary is full.","On Servicedrome a full-price reply to a learner costs about £4.35 in credits, and a pupil won on pay per hire costs about £23.","A regular pupil is worth roughly £1,500 to £2,000 in lessons. The question is how much of that you give away to find them.","FgEIANu-yuXWsE_nCHexKa-ntD79TA_NpctKl89yfI0",[327,328,332,339,345,350,355],{"title":5,"description":313,"path":318,"category":310,"date":312,"cover":311},{"title":329,"description":330,"path":138,"category":310,"date":312,"cover":331},"How to Get Pupils as a Newly Qualified Driving Instructor","Where a new ADI's first pupils come from, what learners are asking for right now, and how to turn 70 free credits into your first students on Servicedrome.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-get-pupils-new-driving-instructor.svg",{"title":333,"description":334,"path":335,"category":336,"date":337,"cover":338},"Best Areas to Learn to Drive in London","Discover which London boroughs are best for learner drivers. Quieter roads, easier test centres, and where to find great instructors.","\u002Fblog\u002Fbest-areas-learn-to-drive-london","Tips","2026-04-12","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fbest-areas-learn-to-drive-london.svg",{"title":340,"description":341,"path":342,"category":343,"date":337,"cover":344},"How Much Do Driving Lessons Cost in London in 2026?","A breakdown of driving lesson prices across London boroughs in 2026. Average costs, what affects pricing, and how to get the best value.","\u002Fblog\u002Fdriving-lesson-costs-london-2026","Guides","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fdriving-lesson-costs-london-2026.svg",{"title":346,"description":347,"path":348,"category":343,"date":337,"cover":349},"How to Choose a Driving Instructor in London","A practical guide to finding the right driving instructor in London. What to look for, questions to ask, and red flags to avoid.","\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-choose-a-driving-instructor","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-choose-a-driving-instructor.svg",{"title":351,"description":352,"path":353,"category":343,"date":337,"cover":354},"Manual vs Automatic Driving Lessons: Which Should You Choose?","Comparing manual and automatic driving lessons in London. Pros, cons, costs, and which licence gives you more flexibility.","\u002Fblog\u002Fmanual-vs-automatic-driving-lessons","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmanual-vs-automatic-driving-lessons.svg",{"title":356,"description":357,"path":358,"category":336,"date":337,"cover":359},"10 Tips for Passing Your Driving Test First Time","Practical advice for passing your UK driving test on the first attempt. From test day preparation to common mistakes to avoid.","\u002Fblog\u002Ftips-passing-driving-test-first-time","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Ftips-passing-driving-test-first-time.svg",1793663043309]