To everyone who is considering Driving Camp. Do you know how much it costs? The biggest attraction of Driving Camp is that it is cheaper than commuting. You'll often see advertisements that claim "lowest price at 150,000 yen!", but don't jump on them easily. In fact, the number of people who can attend the training camp at this price is quite limited. Read this article to understand the market price of Driving Camp and the points that will make it cheaper, and then search for the best driving school.

Why are Driving Camp cheap?

1. Due to the large number of competitors, price competition is likely to occur.
   Generally, commuter driving schools target local residents, but driving schools that offer training camps attract students from all over the country. As a result, we inevitably compete with driving schools across the country, which tends to lead to intense price competition.
2. Labor costs are relatively low
   Many driving schools that hold training camps are located in rural areas, so labor costs and land costs are lower than in urban areas.
3. Because you can teach efficiently
   The training camp training schedule is basically decided by the driving school. When commuting to school, students make reservations for lessons according to their own convenience, resulting in congestion and cancellations, which inevitably reduces efficiency. On the other hand, training camps can be scheduled evenly, so instructors can be allocated to lessons without waste, such as ensuring that multiple lessons are conducted with multiple people.

The mechanism behind “lowest price 150,000 yen”

This price often seen in advertisements causes people to misestimate the cost of Driving Camp. Achieving this price is extremely difficult and can only be achieved under the following conditions.

1. Participating during off-season (school/work periods)
2. Shared room (multiple people staying in the same room)
3. Self Cook (gather ingredients at your own expense)

To begin with, there are only a limited number of people who can participate in training camps during the off-season, and sharing a room or cooking your own meals may not be suitable for some people. These conditions tend to be necessary when the price is less than 200,000 yen. Let's estimate that the average price of Driving Camp is around 250,000 yen.

How to keep training camp fees low

I want to keep costs down! That's what everyone thinks. So what should you pay attention to? I have summarized the points.

1.Select an AT car

If you get an AT car, it will be about 15,000 yen cheaper. Generally, the training fee per hour of Driving Lessons is about 5,000 yen, and the number of hours of Driving Lessons is 34 hours for MT cars and 31 hours for AT cars. Therefore, the total training camp fee for Regular Automatic is cheaper compared to Regular Manual because there is less training time.

Generally, when obtaining a regular car license, it is sufficient to only drive an AT car. In fact, MT cars accounted for 1.5% of domestic passenger car sales, while AT cars accounted for 98.5% (2011). In addition, it was said that a manual transmission license was required to become a professional driver, but in recent years, the proportion of commercial vehicles that use automatic transmissions has increased, and a manual transmission license is no longer required.

2. Aim for low season or around the time when prices fluctuate.

It will be much cheaper if you avoid the busy season. This is because during the off-season, school and work have already started, and most people are unable to attend, so prices are lower. The prices you often see in advertisements are for this period.

There are ways to keep costs down even during busy periods. The points are before and after the price changes. The graph above shows the price fluctuations for spring break at a certain driving school, and the highest prices are set from mid-February to late February due to the rush of applications. However, even for the same spring break, prices become a little cheaper in early February or March. Here's the point. If you aim for the time just before the price goes up or right after the price goes down, you can get cheaper prices even when it's easier to accommodate your schedule. However, since prices are low even before and during the same period, there is a high possibility that seats will fill up quickly. To ensure your application, you will need to make your reservation well in advance. Training camp rates become available around October for spring break and around April for summer vacation, so make plans to apply during those times.

3.Choose a shared room/ Self Cook (if self-catering, avoid eating out as much as possible)

Among the training camp plans, shared room plans are cheaper than single and double room plans. Self Cook are also cheaper because you prepare your own meals. However, you need to be careful with Self Cook; if you eat out repeatedly, you will have to pay for meals, so you will need to think about how to prepare meals cheaply until graduation.

4. Take advantage of discounts

Please check the discount benefits when applying. Representative ones are as follows.

• Group discount: Discounts are applied when 3 or more people apply.
• Early bird discount: Applies if you apply immediately after the price is disclosed.
• Student discount: Applicable if you prove you are a student.

[Source] https://menkyodeace.jp/discount.html

Other sites also offer their own discounts and special benefits, so if you want to get a better deal, check them out.

5. Take advantage of our lowest price guarantee

The Lowest Price Guarantee is a service that refunds the difference if you apply and another website offers a lower price than the training camp you are applying for.
The application method and refund amount vary depending on the application site, but please take advantage of it to keep it cheaper.

An example of the lowest price guarantee for “Driving Camp iD”

Source: https://www.i-drive.jp/bestrate/

Warranty details

If you find a site where you can apply for the same Driving Camp course plan at a cheaper price, we will refund the difference.

summary

Budget is an important point, especially for students, but driving schools that offer Driving Camp offer a variety of events and services for students to enjoy. Since this is a special training camp, please first look for a training camp not only in terms of price, but also in terms of things you can enjoy during your time between lessons (leisure, gourmet food, events, etc.) and lodging (enjoying with everyone, relaxing by yourself, with hot springs, etc.). Make your once-in-a-lifetime license training camp something you won't regret.