Learning driving has become costly after instructors raised fee by RO 1.
Instructors who used to charge RO 6 or RO 7 per hour now demand RO 8 and even RO 9, some of the trainees told. “My instructor asked me to pay RO 80 for 10 hour session of training which was RO 70 until last week and that too I have to pay in advance,” Ridviya, a driving licence aspirant, said. When asked about the hike, her driving instructor told her that the cost of petrol has gone up and it was difficult to offer lessons at old rates. Other instructors have a different take on the hike.
“We used to train learners at RO 6 or RO 7 for several years. We have not raised the fee although the prices of spare parts and other expenses have gone high. We are forced to increase the fee without which it would be difficult to run the show,” Muhammed Fateh said. Learners said not only the learning fees but the test fee too is taking a toll on their income. “When we give test at ROP we are supposed to pay RO 30 or RO 35 to the instructors. But the actual charge of ROP is just RO 5,” another learner said. “If one clears the test, she or he has to pay an additional RO 5.”
Usually, a full-time instructor will have some 10 students in a day, which will earn him or her some RO 80 a day. “I think there should be a regulatory measure to make the fees standard and to control the heavy test fees”, Philip, manager of an IT firm who failed 4 times in his road tests, said. There is no prescribed limit to the number of learners under an instructor.
Source: OmanObserver