Figures show Liverpool needs people to enter the field more than anywhere else in the UK
Traffic congestion in Liverpool city centre(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
A new study says Liverpool is the place in the UK most in need of new driving instructors. The news may not be surprising to some as one area of the city has repeatedly been named as the hardest place to pass your driving test in the UK.
For a number of years, Speke has held the title of having the worst driving centre pass rate in the UK. As the ECHO has reported previously, 2023 was no different. Just 229 candidates out of 756 (30.3%) were able to pass there between April and September 2023. If you drive eight miles down the road to Norris Green, the pass rate jumped up to 45.6%, which is just below the national average.
With 2025 marking 90 years since the driving test was introduced in the UK, the UK’s largest driving school has revealed many people are considering careers as driving instructors after helping a learner practice.
According to a poll by the AA Driving School, supportive friends and family supervised an estimated 5m hours of private practice for learner drivers in 2024 – each supervising an average of 25 hours’ practice. This is prompting many to think about becoming a professional driving instructor (23%). One in 20 (6%) drivers said they had supervised a learner in 2024.
The research revealed half (52%) of drivers who supervised a learner in 2024 were parents supporting their children, 11% their spouse or partner, and 20% people supervising another relative. More than one in 10 (12%) were helping a friend and 4% their friends’ children.
For most drivers it was a positive experience with nearly a quarter (23%) saying they would consider becoming a driving instructor. Overall, half (53%) said they enjoyed the experience and two-fifths (44%) said they thought being a driving instructor would be a rewarding career. Only a fifth (21%) said they would not do it again.
AA Driving School saw new pupil registrations increase by 5.1% in 2024, with regional peaks of up to 127% (Salisbury). The 10 places most in need of new AA Driving School franchised instructors are:
1. Liverpool
2. Oldham
3. Bristol
4. West London
5. Blackburn
6. Edinburgh
7. Harrow
8. Medway
9. Salisbury
10. Motherwell
To become a fully qualified Approved Driving Instructor, you must train and take three exams, set by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). Both the AA Driving School and British School of Motoring (BSM) offer this training, including PDI training which means you can teach and earn while you learn. Once qualified, full franchise instructors are self-employed with all the benefits that brings including uncapped earning potential and flexibility.
When asked why Speke is such a hard place to pass compared to other areas of Merseyside, Danny Smith, who runs Danny’s Driving School, has argued it is the “perfect storm” of tricky roads, fast roundabouts, and people taking their tests without having driving lessons from an instructor.
Danny said: “What you tend to find is the inner cities and the built up areas, the pass rate is worse and the more rural centres tend to have a higher pass rate as they’re a little bit out the way. That’s definitely one of the main factors.
The AA Driving School says Liverpool is most in need of driving instructors and a new driving school out of anywhere in the UK(Image: Steve Parsons/PA Wire)
“Historically Speke has always been number one as the lowest pass rate in the country. I got to know the areas a little bit [in Speke] and some of the roads around there are particularly tricky, and I have no doubt that’s responsible for a lot of the fails.
“When you come out of the Speke test centre and do a right you have got multiple entry and exit points, so that confuses people straight away. Then you’re turning onto a dual carriageway which is a 40mph road and you have got the shopping area, and a huge roundabout heading to Speke Airport, so there’s a lot of complex junctions that are just around that test centre – and I’m sure that’s responsible for a lot of fails.
“If you head towards Hunts Cross that’s also a very busy area, and then you have the little housing estates in Garston, all the little side roads, they’re all quirky roads. It may just be a perfect storm of roads that’s contributing to it.
“The roundabouts are huge, they can tend to be easier sometimes, but on a driving test the judging of the gap has to be almost perfect. I’m sure if we could get the stats on it a fair few of those fails would be coming at them two big roundabouts.
“But Norris Green has that as well to a certain degree and instructors should be teaching the pupils to work out the ins and outs of the test centre as an absolute must before going in for a test. I think instructors should have that covered really, so it doesn’t explain it fully – even if the roads were so complex it still doesn’t explain the pass rate being as low as it is.”