Driving School Profit Calculator — Lesson Price, Employ vs Lease the Car

1. What the car books in a typical week

Standard in-car lessons booked per week

Standard in-car lesson price ($)

Standard in-car lesson car minutes

Standard in-car lesson fuel and wear ($ each)

Long block lessons booked per week

Long block lesson (2 hours or more) price ($)

Long block lesson (2 hours or more) car minutes

Long block lesson (2 hours or more) fuel and wear ($ each)

Road-test packages booked per week

Road-test package (warm-up lesson plus test day) price ($)

Road-test package (warm-up lesson plus test day) car minutes

Road-test package (warm-up lesson plus test day) fuel and wear ($ each)

2. The car and your time

Car hours available per week

Late-cancellation and no-show rate (% of booked lessons)

What your own instructing hour should pay you ($)

Target margin on each offer (%)

3. Office, car and road-test hire

This car's share of office rent and utilities ($ per month)

Car cost net of expected resale, with dual brakes fitted ($)

Years you will keep the car

Insurance, licensing, marketing and other fixed cost for this car ($ per month)

Completed lessons that end in a road-test car hire (%)

Road-test car hire price ($)

Road-test car hire cost to you ($)

4. Employ an instructor or lease the car

Instructor pay (% of the lesson price)

Payroll tax and extras on that pay (%)

Car lease an independent instructor would pay ($ per week)

Enter your numbers or load the example, then click Work out the car.

Result

Each offer

Offer	Price	Cost	Profit per lesson	Margin	Per car hour	Price for target

The week at different volumes: what the car nets three ways

Volume	Booked	Car hours	Car used	You instruct, after your pay	Employ an instructor	Lease the car

The arithmetic, and what it leaves out

Only lessons that happen earn money or burn fuel. A late cancellation empties the slot, and because you still hold the hour, your own time for it is spread over the lessons that did happen.
A lesson costs its car minutes at the hourly figure you type, plus its fuel and wear, plus its share of the car's weekly fixed cost: office rent, the car spread over the years you will keep it, and other fixed cost such as insurance.
Profit per car hour is what a booked hour is expected to bring in (the price less fuel and wear, plus the road-test hire margin, after cancellations) before fixed cost and before anyone is paid, so it compares offers on the thing the car runs out of: hours.
An employed instructor costs a share of every completed lesson plus payroll tax and extras on it; you still pay fuel and wear, office rent and the car and you keep the road-test hire margin. An independent instructor pays a flat weekly lease, buys their own fuel and keeps their own road-test hire.
Not modelled: tips, any pay to you beyond the hourly figure, state licensing and bond costs, sales tax, card fees, advertising, an instructor who books fewer students than you do, seasonality and slow weeks, whether an instructor can lawfully be treated as independent, and income tax.

Common questions

How much should a driving school charge per lesson?

Add the car minutes at what your time is worth, the fuel and wear the lesson burns, and the lesson's share of office rent, insurance and the car, then divide by one minus the margin you want. A student who cancels late leaves you with an empty hour, so the lessons that do happen carry that time. Type your own minutes, costs and cancellation rate and read the price off.

Is it better to employ driving instructors or lease them the car?

Leasing gives a fixed weekly amount whatever the independent instructor books, and they carry the empty hours, fuel and cancellations. Employing pays the instructor a share of each lesson that happens, plus payroll tax and extras, but you carry the bookings, the fuel and the cancellations. The calculator prints what each option nets the school per week after office rent and the car, the lease at which the two pay the same, and the pay share at which they pay the same. Whether an instructor can lawfully be treated as independent depends on your state and the facts, and this tool does not decide that.

How many lessons a week does a driving school car need to break even?

The car's weekly fixed cost (its share of office rent, the car's cost net of resale spread over the years you keep it, insurance and other fixed cost) divided by what each completed lesson leaves after fuel and wear, your own pay for the car time and the road-test car hire margin. The result gives the completed lessons needed per week and the number you would have to book at your cancellation rate.

How much do late cancellations cost a driving school?

Each empty slot loses the lesson margin (price less fuel and wear, plus any road-test car hire you would have sold) unless you can fill it. The calculator multiplies your cancellation rate by the week's bookings and prints the cost per week and per year, and what halving the rate with a deposit or a reminder text would be worth.

What does this leave out?

Tips, which belong to whoever earned them, your own pay beyond the hourly figure you type, state licensing and bond costs, sales tax, card fees, advertising, an instructor who books fewer students than you do, seasonality, and income tax. It is a planning aid, not an estimate of record.

Is my data uploaded?

No. Everything runs in your browser tab and nothing is sent anywhere. There are no accounts. The share link keeps your numbers in the link itself, which you choose whether to send.