A bit of history about LDC driving schools

The Learner Driving Centre (LDC) was first established in 1987 and was later acquired by Teaching Driving Limited in 1991. At the start LDC operated in a similar manner to BSM with high street shops (see photo of a typical LDC shop) with instructors being charged a high weekly fee making it difficult for them to earn a high income or being fully committed to the cause of providing quality tuition. This approach was seriously flawed so Teaching Driving Limited went about developing a whole new LDC driving school package for it's franchised driving instructors.

LDC was the first (if not still the only) driving school to develop a sophisticated student (client) centred training system for learner drivers, incorporating a programme of carefully planned driving lessons with clear targets, modern teaching methods and innovative home study training materials (i.e. the LDC video series and accompanying workbook). When effectively applied by skilled instructors these resources resulted in learners making far more rapid progress and passing the test in far fewer driving lessons.

Whilst this new approach proved very popular with the public at the time, many of the existing instructors did not like the system because it made it easy for learners (and/or indeed parents) to see what had been covered and what remained outstanding. They also didn't like the potential reduction in the number of driving lessons needed to pass the driving test. It soon became clear we would need to train a new breed of instructor who believed in offering quality and was willing to put their clients first rather than those instructors who appeared only to be interested in what they considered to be best for them. As a result LDC decided to invest in the recruitment and development of new instructors from scratch, to overcome this early set back.

Those instructors who do no share LDC's 'quality, customer first' ethos are eventually found out and encouraged to leave the franchise network to join the mass ranks of independent instructors where they can do as they please. Sadly we have found the number of instructors who are willing to put the customer first, take pride in the quality of service they provide and continually strive to be the best they can be are few and far between. Which is why despite successfully training thousands of people to become driving instructors over the last 30 years we only operate a few hundred at anyone time.

LDC has carefully grown its business over the past 30 years, making sure it can properly support the instructors it has before adding any more and not being frightened to let go of those instructors who do not want to operate to these high standards. The end result is a network of quality franchised driving schools each owned by a professional driving instructor dedicated to providing excellence of service. Our goal has never been to be the largest driving school network or indeed the most profitable but rather the best with a genuinely friendly family feel to it. Companies like Red, BSM and Bill Plant have all gone bust in recent years needing to be bailed out by others only interested in the return they can get while LDC has continued to remain robust and faithful to its orginal goal. Nobody has invested more and nobody can match our record of success, both in terms of getting people qualified as driving instructors in the first instance or in ensuring they have a successful career thereafter.