Quick facts
- Instructors play an important role in ensuring professional drivers have the skills needed to safely operate on our highways.
- Becoming an instructor is a promotion that many drivers, once they have the necessary experience, can achieve.
- Instructing can lead to even more advanced safety and management roles.
- Instructing is not a career that’ll be immediately available to inexperienced drivers.
Seasonality
Work is nonseasonal, but may vary depending on the specific employer.
Method of pay
Instructors at driving schools are generally paid hourly. Instructors at trucking and busing companies may be paid in several different ways:
- In a similar manner as the drivers within their companies.
- On a special pay system as part of their role.
- Regular driver pay when they’re working as a driver and a different pay method (like hourly) when they are instructing, if instructing is not a full-time position.
Equipment and tasks
The roles and responsibilities associated with a driver instructor career can vary depending on whether the individual works at a driving school, is a full-time instructor at a carrier, or is an experienced driver at a carrier who occasionally instructs. Since some form of onboarding and training is standard practice when starting as a driver, employers generally have at least part-time instructors. These individuals may simply be trusted, senior drivers who are willing to take on training tasks when needed.
Equipment
Driving school instructors typically operate highway tractors (sleeper or day cab) and 53’ van trailers. This is the standard type of vehicle used for Class 1 driver training. Depending on the school, they may also operate buses, school buses, and straight trucks to provide training for other licence classes. Instructors at individual carriers will operate whatever equipment the company uses, which can vary greatly based on the type of work they do.
Tasks
Instructors will need to perform all of the tasks expected of their students while also providing instruction to one or more inexperienced drivers.
Lifestyle in the industry
Instructors at Driving Schools
Instructing at driving schools generally involves becoming certified through the Government of Alberta if the instructor is to provide training for Alberta’s Mandatory Entry Level Training (MELT) program.
Instructors at Carriers
The lifestyle of a driving instructor at a trucking or busing company can vary dramatically, especially because many instructors are full-time drivers who only occasionally instruct. The other sector profiles on this website can provide more information on what to expect as a driver in various industry sectors.
Work shifts
Generally, work is during the day and shifts are around 9 hours long. Overtime and work outside of regular business hours may be needed depending on the business model of the school.
Physical demands
This work is not particularly physically demanding.
Work/life balance
Instructors are generally home every night.
Predictability
Instructors typically know when they are working, although student numbers can fluctuate without warning.
On call
It’s uncommon for instructors to be on call, but they may be called in to cover for an absent instructor on a day off.
Unionization
Unionization is not common.
Getting Started
Typically, instructors at trucking and busing companies are first hired as drivers. Then, once they have earned the trust of their employer, are promoted into instructing roles. Instructors at driving schools who teach the MELT program need to become licenced through the Government of Alberta before they can instruct the MELT curriculum.
Mandatory requirements
Instructors will need the correct licence class for the vehicles on which they instruct. They’ll also generally need a certain amount of previous experience.
Preferred skills & previous experience
Previous instructing experience, even if not in driving, is valuable to employers. Patience, the ability to handle paperwork, good interpersonal skills, and an attitude of safety are also important attributes of driving instructors.
Red flags
Instructors at Driving Schools
Instructors at driving schools are often a new driver’s first exposure to the industry and, therefore, need to provide thorough and ethical training. Those interested in starting a career as an instructor at a driving school should be on the lookout for these potential red flags (aka signs that an employer may not be operating safely):
- Equipment and vehicles that are in poor condition.
- Being pressured to become an owner-operator early into one’s career or any other signs of employee misclassification.
- Being pressured to push students through the material.
- Tampering with student instructional time to get more people through the program.
- Being asked to instruct without being properly licenced.
Instructors at Carriers
The red flags of any industry sector will apply to being an instructor at a carrier. In addition, being pressured into instructing is also a red flag—as an employer may be taking shortcuts in the training of their drivers.
