How To Start A Defensive Driving School
Defensive driving refers to a manner of driving that employs safe driving techniques to help drivers identify and handle road dangers in a predictable way. Defensive driving does not eliminate accidents but goes a long way to reduce the incidence of accidents. With every driver applying the techniques and strategies of defensive driving, the roads will be safer to drive on. These techniques are imbibed into potential drivers in the form of oral instructions and on the road training when potential drives attend a driving school.
Defensive driving is driving under special conditions. It could be driving under pressure to save lives, time, and money. Situations of defensive driving may include chasing a crime suspect, driving an ambulance, driving a bullion van, dodging criminals, and getting out of a danger zone.
Defensive driving school is therefore is a place where students learn to improve on their driving skills; while behind the wheels they anticipate situations and making safe maneuvers to prevent and avoid road tragedies. Such safe maneuvers are swift and are based on road and environmental situations at the time of identifying and subsequent prediction of a road danger ahead. No doubt, there are some benefits to defensive driving and they include the following:
Benefits of defensive driving
Reduction of insurance rates for drivers
When a driver completes a defensive driving class, some states in the US can reduce insurance premiums too as much as 10% for a period not less than three years but not exceeding five years. Also, with the reduction of points on the driver’s license and the assurance that insurance rates will not go up, drivers enjoy those benefits and the trust that they will behave well on the road when driving.
Similarly, just as the defensive driving classes differ from state to state, what is expected from drivers also differ. Some states permit some driving classes to last for just four hours, some others prolong theirs to be as long as six and eight hours.
Also, some states allow driving students to take defensive driving lessons by watching a videotape, while other states do not allow such things but make students attend defensive driving within a classroom condition.
Executing a driver safety program will also be of help to your organization by keeping employees out of danger and can potentially:
- Reduce the risk of motor vehicle accidents and traffic violations
- Lessen vulnerability to liability risks and legal costs
- Reduce constant vehicle repair bills and maintenance.
- Safeguard business operations and protect brand identity
The curriculum of a Basic Defensive Driving Course
Each state dictates and regulates the contents of a defensive driving course, but typically the course content is designed to impart knowledge to the driver based on the state laws and that is the reason why most of the defensive driving classes appear to be similar.
Here below is the basic outline of the course content that is found in defensive driving courses and associated danger that will change the candidate for the course.
Traffic Crashes
Human losses arising from accidents on American roads are about 41,000 per year while injuries account for about 3,236,000 per year with social and personal impacts. It has been estimated that about 38% of all deadly accidents occurring in the US are alcohol-related while 30% is said to be a result of over speeding.
The defense driving courses cover the causes of motor accidents; the emotional trauma and the amount of money spent to take care of the car crashes are usually included in the defensive driving course content. The objective of the defensive driving school is to save lives by reducing the risks associated with road mishaps. The students are thought the psychology of being behind the wheel and exercising due diligence when driving.
Psychological Factors
Drivers have multiples psychological issues to deal with while behind the wheels such as managing stress, fatigue, road rage, and emotional distress. Some of these psychological issues can be handled by the driver if he has been educated on what to look for and how to deal with them.
The essence of the driving school is to teach drivers how to handle such psychological situations and make them develop positive attitudes while behind the wheels and increase their focus on the job of driving.
Psychology of Human Factors
Being behind the wheels under the influence of alcohol or drugs is still the major cause of many road mishaps every year. As a result, every state is working to reduce the incidence of road accidents by trying to imbibe the culture of non-alcohol intake while on the steering.
As part of the course content of the defensive driving school is to teach the students about the role of drugs and alcohol play on drivers when they are on the motorways. Students are made to know about the limits as to blood-alcohol level, then affecting their judgment, driving skills, and how the body is generally affected by alcohol and drugs. More importantly, students are made to understand the consequences of being on the wrong side of the law in cases about alcohol and drug.
The Dynamics of a Crash
Vehicle crashes can be prevented or at least reduced to a minimum level if drivers can adhere to the instructions learned in defensive driving schools. When a vehicle crashes with another vehicle, the severity of the accident depends on the speed and the objects being hit by the crashing vehicle. There is always the possibility of a second collision because passengers inside the vehicle are likely to collide either with one another or with other objects in the vehicle so that the impact of the crash is felt by everyone affected by the crash.
The second collision happens mainly because the passengers are not wearing a seat belt and the impact can be enormous depending on the speed of the driver.
The issue of the impact of a vehicle crash and the impact on the second collision is the subject of the defensive driving courses which shows factors leading to a crash and demonstrating how the impact of the crash can be avoided.
Safety Equipment
The use of safety equipment for the prevention of injury or death is not new but the actual use by victims would prevent about half of deaths on American roads every year. Such equipment includes the wearing of a seat belt in a proper way, child safety seats and headrests, airbags are all meant to keep the driver and passengers safe and minimize the risk associated with a vehicle crash.
Defensive driving courses provide guidelines on why and how to use this equipment to reduce the rate of deaths and injuries on the roads.
Crash Prevention Techniques
The defensive driving strategy is crucial to understanding how to prevent road crashes and determine in advance potential hazards prior to its occurring. It is the more reason why defensive driving tends to focus more on providing information on crash prevention strategy. So in any course on defensive driving students are thought the defensive prevention techniques that include the following:
- Glancing the roadway and getting used to its surroundings.
- Following distances adopting the two-second rule.
- Understanding your vehicle’s stopping distance.
- Noticing distance reactions.
- Being aware of environment hazards
- Being mindful of vehicle emergencies
- Sharing of the road.
- Overtaking and necessary clear distance
- Allowing other vehicles the right of way
- Controlling speed at the railroad crossing.
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How To Start A Defensive Driving School
Research the market./Ask Those Who Have Schools
How To Open/Start A Driving School
Draw a business plan:
Get DMV-certified as an instructor
Get a driving school business license from the DMV
Find out who are your competitors
Obtain your start-up funds
Secure a location for your business
Set up your place of business
Procure your car/s for your business.
Draw up a course outline
Advertise your new driving school.
Driving test for your students
Conclusion
Research the market./Ask Those Who Have Schools
The first thing you must do before you dabble into a defensive driving business is to believe in yourself whether you have sufficient passion and the innate ability to be a teacher, enjoy doing it, and be ready to meet your profit goals. If this is settled, then you will have to conduct a feasibility study cum market research to have an overview of the defensive driving school industry and the market in which you are going to operate in. This becomes necessary because you should understand the market – online education/training and physical classroom, face to the face learning process. It is important also to know how large is the market and the rate at which it is growing. The competitive activities must also be unraveled to work out how you are going to launch your attack.
The first port of call in your inquiries is the internet since there is a large volume of resources lurking on the web waiting to be used. You must also hit the road to visit some of the already running defensive driving schools and learn few things about the average number of students, fees paid, hours of learning, and the course duration before exams are held and certificates awarded.
The outcome of the research will determine whether launching into the business is a viable option for you or not. One of the reasons why people go into business is to make a profit and if profit is your motive, then a feasibility study report will reveal whether you go into the business or not.
How To Open/Start A Driving School
We have provided you with this write-up few steps that will guide you to start your business. You should at the outset make up your mind the type of defensive driving school you would like to set up. There are two types – physical classroom-type where students are seated in a classroom taking lectures; or online type of giving and receiving lectures. The reason why you should determine the method you want to run your driving school is that you must know which method works for you as well as which one prospective student prefers. For example, some students sleep in the classroom as lectures are on and when it comes to learning on the computer screen, some students do better. Your market research will reveal to you the best viable options for you.
Draw a business plan:
The business plan is not going to take up so much of your time and it is an invaluable document that will guide you on the implementation of business programs. It will cover the following areas of your defensive driving school:
- The executive summary – these summaries the entire business plan and is expected to deal with the following major issues.
- The company background – very brief
- The product/service offered
- The potential market – the defensive driving school existing and potential market.
- The management team – you will be able to head the team of managers.
- The marketing and financing policies and strategies.
- Company’s description – This describes the company’s background and historical account of the company as well as its immediate prospect. Example:-
- When the company is to be founded
- The company’s service and brand name – protected by a trademark, copyright, or patent right
- Service potential viability as revealed by the feasibility studies and market research.
- Potential markets to be penetrated
- How much is to be invested and how much has already been invested
- Marketing – This informs the stakeholders how the entrepreneur wants to capture its potential market segments in terms of:
– Branding, pricing, delivery of driving lectures and other study materials, etc.
– Advertising policies and strategies.
- Management ownership structure. This section also introduces the people holding or is likely to hold leadership positions.
- Competition – This section focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of competitors existing defensive driving schools.
- Financial statements and projections – these aspects deal with projected cash flows and financial forecasts.
Get DMV-certified as an instructor
As a potential defensive driving instructor, you must be certified and have all the necessary certifications before you launch your business. This may entail undergoing a course yourself on defensive driving and passing the tests before you can instruct others. There is also the need to acquire sufficient experience in defensive driving to put you in good stead to deliver good results. The experience can be acquired in a reputable defensive driving school where all essential aspect of driving is taught.
The local Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) which oversees vehicle registration and licensing provides detailed information on how to become a certified instructor.
Get a driving school business license from the DMV
Obtaining a driving school business licensing is important in the operation of a defensive driving school. Failure to obtain the necessary licenses can be very costly and may leave you with no legal protection. So as soon as you decide to launch into the defensive driving school you must gather relevant information regarding how to obtain the license and apply for it. The business license will be issued in due course after the DMV certifies that you are a credible and proper person to obtain the license.
You must also register your business to secure your business license to give it the legal effect. You may choose a sole proprietorship or an LLC. The sole proprietorship only registers your business name but doesn’t provide you with legal protection particularly your assets but LLC does. LLC protection limits your liability.
Find out who are your competitors
You should do proper research to find out and locate your existing and potential competitors. Find out how they run their business in terms of online or offline classes, what is in their curriculum, their enrolment strength, course duration, and the success rate of their students, course fees, and profit level of their business.
With the detailed information at your fingertips, you will be able to plan how to attack the market and achieve measurable success.
Obtain your start-up funds
You need funds to operate your business and the earlier you obtain your funds the better. However, to procure sufficient funds, you need to draw a business plan that will not only give you direction on how to execute your business programs but also will attract potential investors and financiers to provide the necessary finance. To source for funds, the first port of call for you is to unlock your savings and invest it into the business. Since personal savings is not likely to be enough, you should ask family members and friends for soft loans to help in financing the business.
Moreover, you may offer personal assets for sales such as expensive jewelry, personal cars, or other property. Whatever cash is realized from the sale can be invested in the defensive driving school.
Beyond selling personal assets, you can use your crafted business plan to seek investors’ finance or other financiers. Some investors if satisfied with the business plan would rather put in money and want to be part of the management team to monitor how the money invested is managed. Others will put in their money and go away expecting to earn profit at the end of the period.
Depending on the amount of money raised and the requirements of the defensive driving school, if there is a shortfall, you may approach your bankers for a medium-term loan.
Secure a location for your business
You may need to contact your real estate agent to secure a befitting space for your business.. There are important aspects of the defensive driving school you should be aware of such as the space of the classrooms, the administrative offices, garage, and convenient rooms, and so on. You should prefer a location in the city center because of the reach as well as recognition.
Set up your place of business
Some defensive driving school proprietors would prefer to use their homes for this business, others that are business-minded would opt for business surroundings that befit the business they are in. This is a business you should expect all classes of people to become your students and locating at the heart of the city will offer you a competitive advantage over your competitors.
Your business place whether a rented apartment or a freehold property should be decorated to attract all manners of people to apply to do the driving course in the school. You have to equip the classrooms with desks and administrative offices with modern IT equipment. Be sure that there is a parking space around the building.
Procure your car(s) for your business.
You must be sure of the type and number of cars for the driving school you would want to buy that will meet the requirement of the school and the local DMV. The groundwork you would have laid down in your business plan after conducting market research.
In the course of purchasing the cars, you may have the option of buying the cars and paying for them outright; obtain them through credit sales or by lease. If cash is in short supply, and depending on whether you are creditworthy, you may do your calculation whether to buy on credit or to lease them or both.
Draw up a course outline
You should draw up a curriculum to enable your students to know exactly what they are expected to study to make them better drivers. If you have some difficulty drawing up a curriculum that will meet the requirements of the state and needs of the learning needs of the drivers, then consult an expert who will help you draw up an outline course.
In all events, the courses you should include are the following:
- Court-mandated driving classes
- Teen driving courses
- Adult classes
- Handicapped-driver education and so on.
- State traffic laws
Advertise your new driving school.
Use all cheaply available media to project your driving school particularly make use of social media( Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin) to viral messages to the public. Be active with social media, do write-ups, and upload to your website or blog.
Use also the local radio and newspapers to advertise your business. Be active in the local community affairs and organize events that will draw members of the public.
Driving test for your students
At the end of the course, your students will face DMV tests to determine whether they have absorbed the course they were exposed to or not. They will be required to use a car for the test and the basic state requirements for every car should include the following:
- All brakes lights must be in good condition.
- All turn signals must be in good condition.
- Seat belts must function properly and must be in use.
- License plates must be placed on the front and rear of the vehicle with current tabs on the backplate.
- The windscreen must not crack or chipped in the line of vision.
- If case it is raining at the time of the test, windshield wipers must function and the defroster system must work appropriately to defog the windows.
- Tires must comply with the state requirements for tire tread.
- A valid insurance card must be presented at the time of testing
Conclusion:
The business of the defensive driving school is easy to set up once you have the basic requirements in terms of DMV certified, on the job experience and you are ready to handle the chalk and be able to demonstrate in front of the students. With the necessary research on competitors and other information on running the defensive driving school obtained and due diligence, you are in for a successful business.