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How many driving instructors are there in the Boston area?
1 million people, 10,000 turning 16 every year and mostly learning to drive at some point, 10 hours to learn to drive, 1000 hours of instruction time, so 100 students a year and 100 instructors. If it takes less time to learn or more is available I could see the number dropping to 25; I don't see it going to 400.
But! Most families have cars, do most people learn to drive from their parents? That could cut business by 90%, leaving 10. There may also be adult in business in the form of buying off driving infractions with lessons; if 10% of the adults take such a lesson at some point in their life, then that could support another 10 instructors.
The web will show me driving schools, not individual instructors; how many instructors per school? Basic driving instruction doesn't have much economies of scale: one student behind the wheel, one car, one instructor in the passenger seat. Having a business could be as simple as putting out an ad an showing up, unless there are regulations about having a car the instructor can take control of. But there could be some team up under brand name or sharing office expensives, I'll guess 2-3 instructors per school on average.
I'm ignoring motorcycles or commercial vehicles, just looking at basic cars.
Yelp lists 10 schools in the area, missing one I know of, but including a motorcycle school.
Sonia's makes teens take 12 hours behind the wheel, 6 in observation, and 30 in the classroom. [this seems standard] $450 for all that, or $30/hour for road practice. Indicates the law does require a two-brake system. No indication of how many people are involved.
Love's has one instructor.
Brookline has "a handful" of instructors.
North Quincy review mention 4 names; the website says "Collectively, we have close to 50 years of driving experience." so can't be too many people.
Safety Auto claims to have service a wide range of immigrant communities, and taught 3000 students in the past 2 years, vs. my rough 100/year estimate for one person. So maybe 7-15 instructors.
City Auto claims 50,000 students since 1998 or about 3300/year! 15-33 instructors?
D&D totally unclear, plus reviews call it a scam that makes you fail your test.
Metro: one review about parking in a handicapped spot, dead website.
Boston DS: reviews make it sound like one guy. Website gives us director, manager, and CFO, but not instructors.
Google lists some more:
Natural: no info
Newton: father/daughter team, photo of three cars.
A-L&L: no idea, though name and photo of two cars sounds like a two-person thing
T-Guide: no idea
Success: "thousands in the past 12 years". 3 cars.
Then Google Maps has a bunch of small dots.
Friendship: one guy?
International: I remember thinking a husband-wife team, don't know why.
Arlex: family-owned.
Canto: "Our staff speak English, Portuguese, Spanish, Cambodian(Kymer) and other African languages." That would imply at least a few polyglots, except "other African languages" makes me suspicious, as none of the ones mentioned are African.
Henry's Everett is family-owned.
Okay, there's not quite 40 dots on the broader map, I won't go through them all. But 100 instructors seems pretty plausible, in the end. I realized along the way that "most people learned from their parents" may not apply to immigrants; the two schools that seem potentially big have Chinese on their website or emphasize their immigrant service.
1 million people, 10,000 turning 16 every year and mostly learning to drive at some point, 10 hours to learn to drive, 1000 hours of instruction time, so 100 students a year and 100 instructors. If it takes less time to learn or more is available I could see the number dropping to 25; I don't see it going to 400.
But! Most families have cars, do most people learn to drive from their parents? That could cut business by 90%, leaving 10. There may also be adult in business in the form of buying off driving infractions with lessons; if 10% of the adults take such a lesson at some point in their life, then that could support another 10 instructors.
The web will show me driving schools, not individual instructors; how many instructors per school? Basic driving instruction doesn't have much economies of scale: one student behind the wheel, one car, one instructor in the passenger seat. Having a business could be as simple as putting out an ad an showing up, unless there are regulations about having a car the instructor can take control of. But there could be some team up under brand name or sharing office expensives, I'll guess 2-3 instructors per school on average.
I'm ignoring motorcycles or commercial vehicles, just looking at basic cars.
Yelp lists 10 schools in the area, missing one I know of, but including a motorcycle school.
Sonia's makes teens take 12 hours behind the wheel, 6 in observation, and 30 in the classroom. [this seems standard] $450 for all that, or $30/hour for road practice. Indicates the law does require a two-brake system. No indication of how many people are involved.
Love's has one instructor.
Brookline has "a handful" of instructors.
North Quincy review mention 4 names; the website says "Collectively, we have close to 50 years of driving experience." so can't be too many people.
Safety Auto claims to have service a wide range of immigrant communities, and taught 3000 students in the past 2 years, vs. my rough 100/year estimate for one person. So maybe 7-15 instructors.
City Auto claims 50,000 students since 1998 or about 3300/year! 15-33 instructors?
D&D totally unclear, plus reviews call it a scam that makes you fail your test.
Metro: one review about parking in a handicapped spot, dead website.
Boston DS: reviews make it sound like one guy. Website gives us director, manager, and CFO, but not instructors.
Google lists some more:
Natural: no info
Newton: father/daughter team, photo of three cars.
A-L&L: no idea, though name and photo of two cars sounds like a two-person thing
T-Guide: no idea
Success: "thousands in the past 12 years". 3 cars.
Then Google Maps has a bunch of small dots.
Friendship: one guy?
International: I remember thinking a husband-wife team, don't know why.
Arlex: family-owned.
Canto: "Our staff speak English, Portuguese, Spanish, Cambodian(Kymer) and other African languages." That would imply at least a few polyglots, except "other African languages" makes me suspicious, as none of the ones mentioned are African.
Henry's Everett is family-owned.
Okay, there's not quite 40 dots on the broader map, I won't go through them all. But 100 instructors seems pretty plausible, in the end. I realized along the way that "most people learned from their parents" may not apply to immigrants; the two schools that seem potentially big have Chinese on their website or emphasize their immigrant service.