Learning to drive costs are too high for young learners

A third of young adults in UK find learning to drive, car ownership too expensive

Wednesday 5th March 2014 | 0 Comments

A survey commissioned by insurance price comparison website Gocompare.com shows that young people feel priced out of car ownership, or even learning how to drive. Over a third (35 per cent) of non-drivers aged between 17 and 25 responding to the survey said it is just too expensive to learn to drive or to own a car.

The Gocompare survey also showed that 32 per cent of young people believe they spend less using public transport than it would cost them to run a car, though 22 per cent admit to feeling trapped at home by not being able to get around more. The survey’s respondents also said that, on average, young drivers spend £1,831.40 a year keeping their car on the road, with four in five spending up to 30 per cent of their income on running their car.

Almost two fifths (39 per cent) of young drivers spend over £2,000 a year. And even just obtaining a full driving licence can cost around £1,381 (based on Driving Standards Agency figures showing that the average learner driver needs 47 lessons and 22 hours of private practice before they pass their test) in driving lessons, licence and test fees.

18 per cent of young drivers said they turn to their parents for help with their motoring expenses, while 15 per cent of 17 to 25 year old drivers hold a full licence but cannot afford to own a car themselves.

Gocompare.com’s chief operating officer, Lee Griffin, said: “Learning to drive and owning your own car used to be something of a rite of passage for young adults but now it seems that many are just finding it too expensive. Car insurance is one of the biggest expenses for an inexperienced driver but there are ways to try to reduce the cost as you build up a safe driver record and no claims discount.”

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Carly Brookfield in Road Safety News

Wednesday 5th March 2014

Is the skill of driving valued highly enough?

The head of the Driving Instructors Association (DIA) is the latest confirmed speaker for the Young Driver Focus* conference to be held in May 2014.

As CEO of one of the UK's largest driver education and training bodies, Carly Brookfield describes herself as “a passionate advocate of the importance of professional driver training in delivering safer new drivers to our roads, as well as developing the skills of existing licence holders and road users”.

In her presentation, titled “Driver Education - Preparing young people for real life on our roads”, Carly will ask whether the skill of driving is valued highly enough, and therefore is its acquisition - and the need to continually develop it - taken seriously enough?

She will also examine the issues surrounding learning to drive and the efficacy of the current system in preparing young drivers for real life on the roads.

As well as considering what's not working, she will look at what could work better  - and how we should be developing driver education in the future.

Carly Brookfield is responsible for the day to day management and strategic development of the DIA Group, and directs a portfolio of organisations focused on developing driving standards and standards of driver training, in the UK and internationally.

The DIA is the UK's largest membership organisation for professional driver and rider trainers, representing more than 11,500 trainers.

*Young Driver Focus

Young Driver Focus is a collaborative partnership between Road Safety GB and FirstCar, supported by Arval who are providing the venue, technology and refreshments. It is free for Road Safety GB Academy members to attend. The capacity is around 150 delegates and only a handful of places remain available.

The conference will look at “cutting young driver casualties now and in the future”. As this suggests the event will be forward-focused rather than a retrospective look at young driver collisions and casualties.

It will be held at The Arval Centre in Swindon (just off the M4) on Wednesday 14 May 2014, 10.00am – 3.30pm.

For more information contact Nick Rawlings or Sally Bartrum on 01379 650112.

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