Driving
Introduction:
For most of my life I have either made a living from driving or the teaching of driving. I very much view myself as a professional driver.
After an overland trip to Africa in 1980 I wanted a stop gap job so I could save some money up and go travelling again. Taxi driving did this for me.
Between taxi driving and travelling I wanted to make things a bit better for myself so I became a driving instructor. After a period of time I started to specialise in Bengali pupils as I was learning their language.
The theory test came along and I lost most of my pupils who were Bengali as they were put off by the exam. So I went back to taxi driving again till about 2014 when I decided to requalify as a driving instructor.
Since then that is what I have done and I am now the owner of Driving-Pro Limited.
Taxi Driving:
As a taxi driver you will meet people in their richness and diversity. These are both the customers and the fellow drivers. It is a good grounding in dealing with people.
A very useful thing is to say hello to them and have it in your head that you are going to like them. The response you get from saying hello or the lack of it will tell you how the rest of the journey might go. The technique of liking them works because we tend to like people that like us. Also at the end of the journey when you say goodbye to them they will give you money and I find that very likeable.
Driving Instruction:
Like a lot of things the more you look into it the more there is to learn and understand. Instruction is a people game and the grounding in dealing with people from driving taxis was useful. I like to think of it as alchemy as you are producing a change in people from someone who can’t drive to someone that can drive safely and responsibly.
I tend to be a chatty instructor and like to put people at their ease. My justification for doing it this way is that people will learn much better when they are relaxed and by getting to know them I can help them better.
I try to relate what someone does in their life. One of my pupils was a professional cosmologist which made it a bit difficult. Then I realised that instead of saying you are too fast and too close all I needed to say was give yourself ‘time and space’.
Getting someone to achieve their goals is a tremendous feeling. What other jobs can you do where people will cry tears of joy for something that you have been working with them to achieve.
Driving-Pro Limited:
As a professional driver I own and run Driving-Pro Limited. For me this is an opportunity to work with some of the best instructors in the local area which is my home town of Portsmouth and the surrounding area. Like anything you get out of it what you put into it.
We want our instructors to reflect the communities within which we work. So we welcome everyone who wants to be an instructor. It’s hard work for them to qualify but the job satisfaction is tremendous. In fact if you don’t love what you do, we don’t want you!
Some people come to us and after some consideration decide that it’s not for them and that’s okay. I’m very happy that they have asked the question of themselves and done what’s best for them. I have in the past got rid of people and that was horrible but it had to be done. It’s all part of a learning experience.
