If you are intending to get your driving license(Class 3/3a) in CDC, you can choose to be a Private Driving Instructor Car Learner or CDC Car school learner. For this blogpost, I will be writing on detail regarding Private Driving Instructor Car Learner.
How to get started as CDC Private Driving Instructor Car Learner
You will need to pass your BTT (Basic Theory Test) and get your PDL (Provisional Driving License) ready before any PDI(Private Driving Instructor) will consider accepting you as a car learner. This is because PDL is needed so that you can start learning how to drive car in public road. However, for CDC school learner, they can immediately start to drive car without PDL because they are learning car in the CDC circuit which is private road.
In order for you to book your BTT, you will first need to open CDC private car learner account which you can using for booking BTT, FTT and 3 simulator Lessons. There are 2 packages which you can choose. The first package is (SELF-STUDY) – THEORY TEST – BTT & FTT. In this package, you will be entitled to go for etrial tests for both your BTT and FTT(Final Theory Test). This package cost $83.30 and can be enrolled online.
The second package is to just purely open the CDC learner account without any etrial test package. I believe this is the cheapest option and should cost $18.94. However for this option, you might have to make an E-appointment and make your way in person to CDC to open account. Unfortunately for this option, i do not think you can open account online from the comfort of your house.
CDC Private Driving Instructor (PDI) Rate, Enrollment and Miscellaneous Fee
Like Driving School, PDI normally charge enrollment fee. I think a reasonable enrollment fee should be $60 – $100. There should not be any other miscellaneous fee like security deposit or advance payment for rental of car for TP test when you enrolled. If you made advance payment for car rental and TP test, you will be trapped with the PDI. Thus, it is better to insist on not making this advance payment.
In order to determine whether PDI hourly rate is reasonable, you should compare CDC school rate with the PDI rate. If PDI rate is roughly similar to CDC School rate, then you should just go for CDC school because School learner can get access to circuit while private learner need to pay extra on top of the hour rate to enter the circuit. Currently, if the PDI hour rate is more than $40 per hour, it is more worthwhile to enroll in CDC school. This is because a 90 min session with circuit will cost you $60 ($40 x 1.5) and roughly $30 – $39 to enter the circuit. That is a total of $90 – $99 for a session with circuit which is higher than the school peak rate of $78. Furthermore, PDI charges around $400 – $450 for Traffic Police test as compared to school rate of $323.
So before you enroll with the PDI, please check their hourly rate, extra circuit fee and the total cost for renting their car for Traffic Police test. Please refer to the table below of the cost difference.
| PDI Rate assumed $40/Hr | School Rate | |
| without circuit | $60 for 90min | $69 for off-peak $77 for peak (100 min) |
| With circuit | $60 + ($30 to $41) = $90 to $101 for 90 min | $69 for off-peak $77 for peak (100 min) |
| TP cost | $400 – $450 | $323 |
| TP cost + 1 Lesson with circuit | $400 to $450 + $90 to $99 = $490 to $549 | $323 |
PDI Traffic Police Test Cost Breakdown
Generally, the breakdown cost for most PDI are as below. The cost should be from $400 – $550
| Car Rental Fee | $300 – $400 |
| 90 min hour with circuit lesson before tp (optional) | $80 – $110 |
| Circuit fee to enter circuit for your TP | $24 |
| TP test fee | $33 |
Choosing PDI
Before you call up any PDI, you will need to have PDL ready before the PDI will consider your request. There are many PDI teaching in CDC but not all PDI teaches both Class 3 (manual) and Class 3a (auto). Thus, you need to ask if the PDI is teaching only 1 class or both classes. You will also need to find out the language that the PDI can speak so that you can learn properly as instruction will be communicated to you via verbal instruction.
The official passing rate for PDI can be found in Traffic Police website under the drop down menu (Passing Rates of Theory & Practical Tests). For me, i will find PDI with larger number of learners and a Passing rate that is higher than CDC school passing rate. I have compiled the data from traffic police and tabulated them as below for your convenience.
Simulator Lesson for Private Car Learner
Though the simulator lesson content are the same for School and Private Car learner, both are of different booking platform. Thus, private simulator lesson are normally lesser and harder to get earlier lessons slot as compared to school simulator lesson. Moreover, you have to remind PDI have to update the system when you have completed 5 practical lessons so that you can book 3 simulator lessons in your CDC private Car learner account.
Current waiting time for Private Simulator lesson is 4 months which will force you to wait for 4 months before you can book your first Traffic Police Driving test. However, it is possible to get much earlier simulator slot by frequently checking. On the other hand, School Simulator are much easier to get earlier slot. You can find out the most current private simulator waiting time by joining CDC Car learner Telegram Chat Group.
Conclusion
Normally, PDI route should be faster and cheaper than School route assuming that you can pass TP test in 1 – 2 attempts. Thus, this PDI route is good for those who are fast learner. However, when the PDI rate is above $40 per hour, school might be a better alternative. Moreover, you should also look at the waiting time for private simulator lesson to gauge the minimum possible time needed to take your first Traffic Police Driving test.
After taking into consideration for this 2 factors, then you can choose between PDI or CDC route. I personally recommend slow learner to go via school route.
As i am no longer learning in CDC, i might not be able to give the most updated information. Thus, i am forming a telegram group so that i can create a Car learner community to engage all Car learner whereby you all can share your learning experience and learn from each other. Do join the Telegram group by clicking here. The link is https://t.me/CDCCarLearner
If you have any question or thing that you do not understand, you can contact via telegram or email. For faster response, please contact me via telegram or whatsapp. The QR code is the link to contact me via telegram. Telegram is messaging app for smartphone similar to whatapp.
