Cost of learning to drive seems certain to increase

As of 8 March, the cheapest unleaded petrol on the island was priced at 146.9p per litre, compared to 135.5p in January and 119.9p in March 2021.

A price of 160.9p per litre is now the highest in Guernsey, which is also a big increase from 146.9p in January 2022 and 134.9p this time last year.

One driving instructor said it was clear that these rising fuel prices would impact on lessons.

‘With the cost of petrol going up, either the instructor will have less income, or they will choose to put the price up in order to maintain the same level of income,’ he said.

‘This comes at a time when there are more cancelled lessons due to Covid,’ they said.

‘The instructor then has the dilemma of charging the learner for the cancelled lesson, trying to find an alternative pupil at the last minute, which is often not possible, or losing the income from that lesson or series of lessons.

‘If pupils were to not lateral flow test, there will then be an increased risk of passing Covid on to the instructor, which again will result in the instructor being unable to earn until fully recovered.’

Nick Dorey, a retired driving instructor from Cann School of Motoring, expected the increase in fuel prices to have an impact on driving lessons.

‘Most cars use two litres of fuel a lesson and cars are expensive to run so it will definitely have an impact,’ he said.

‘Some schools will absorb the cost, and some will increase their prices.’

Driving instructor Ken Diamond said he had not made any changes to his business as of yet.

‘We don’t know how high the price of petrol is going to go,’ he added.

‘I haven’t done anything about it yet but my costs are under review.’

The Guernsey Press was told by an instructor that there was one driving school definitely planning on increasing lesson costs by July, but this has not yet been confirmed by the school.

CT Plus, which runs the bus service, was contacted to find out what contingencies it had in place to deal with fuel price fluctuations, but it declined to comment.

The company, along with the States, has been investigating electric buses, but the most recent new buses were low emission diesel vehicles.