Today, if you want to order food there are services like Just Eat, Deliveroo and UberEats bring together all of your local restaurants under one roof, so you can pick and choose exactly what you want, from a single source, instead of manually trying to remember what’s around you. Purchasing these items online has gotten much easier in the last 5 years, everyone has a smart phone and looking up these options only takes a couple of minutes.

Not only are they seeing the options available so easily, but they also have thousands of reviews to scan to read over. Previously, a bad takeaway or hotel stay was almost inevitable

Seventeen years olds today were born in 2003, that means they were brought up used to choice and information available at their fingertips.

They never experienced the struggle of having to flick through the huge yellow pages for a takeaway or a driving instructor.

A Journey of Old

Not that long ago I went through the journey to find a driving instructor and I was surprised at how dated the process was, it is not what you would expect in today’s world of choice and convenience.

First, going on to Google and searching for “driving instructors near me” and what one may find is a list of driving school names, phone numbers and a hoard of different websites. Reviews are scattered and, they are hard to find, if they exist at all.

The next method is to try Facebook. Simply add a post asking friends, “Does anyone know a good instructor I can use?” Quickly the learner is spammed with 30 odd people tagging the driving instructor that they used. None of it tells me why I should choose one instructor over another, or whether any of them are even currently available all positive — it does not help the decision-making process and it looks like chaos.

This, for the most part, is how many learner drivers are forced to find their driving instructor (other than choosing a family friend or a word of mouth recommendation). But the part where you can easily compare and choose from available instructors, see their reviews and even filter on their specific requirements are missing from that experience.

Anxiety Rising

For learner drivers, pass rates are falling (46% at time of writing) and anxiety is on the rise in the UK. The AA report that 44% of learners say their practical test has been affected by stress and according to Lloyds Car Insurance 70% of qualified drivers avoid stressful situations due to nerves.

Even choosing a driving instructor is creating anxiety for pupils. This is someone picking an instructor, who they could potentially be with for more than 40 hours. Being alone in a car with anyone for that length of time is stressful, nevermind a 17-year old who is trying to learn a skill at 30mph. How much does the young person know about this instructor? Have they been vetted? And even for the parent, of course they would like to know as much about the person that is teaching their son or daughter as they can.

There are steps to take to reduce these nerves. By instructors detailing information about their experience, their teaching style and personality, photos, and having reviews at hand, help learner drivers make the right decisions and put their mind at ease about that first driving lesson.

Solving the Problem

After watching hundreds of new learners go through this process of seeing how learner drivers book instructors, it was clear the status-quo wasn’t good enough.

We ended up trying to solve these problems of choice, transparency and anxiety with GoRoadie. Allowing learners to search, filter, read reviews and book online — it works just as today’s young people expect.

Finding my instructor on GoRoadie and seeing what type of person they are through his photos put me at ease. Instead of dreading my first lesson, I was positively excited. — Megan Brown, 22, University Student.

We are helping move this industry into the modern era taking direction from hundreds of learner drivers and driving instructors who have a key role in shaping how and what we do. Giving peace of mind to the learner drivers and parents when helping them choose who is to be their driving instructor.

We may have solved the problem for convenience for learners, but there is still ways to go to make those born in 2003, less anxious and safer on the roads.

GoRoadie is a UK-based startup, connecting driving students with their ideal instructors. We just launched our Aberdeen Driving Lessons and Leed Driving Lessons landing page, helping Aberdonians and Loiners pick their ideal driving instructor — as well as learners across the UK.