The short answer
A driving lesson is a teaching unit of 45 minutes, and that is the billing unit. What many people know as a “90-minute lesson” is two units and costs accordingly. Special drives are usually billed at their own rate. Our amounts are listed individually on the prices page.
When comparing driving schools, the price per lesson is the number everybody looks at first — and the one most easily misread, because it can refer to different lengths of time.
The teaching unit
Forty-five minutes. That is the unit the training regulations count in, and the unit every driving school bills in. Where it says “one driving lesson”, those 45 minutes are what is meant — not a clock hour.
Why 90 minutes is driven anyway
Because 45 minutes is tight in practice: pick-up, adjusting the car, out of central Düsseldorf traffic and back again leaves little driving time. Two units back to back are therefore usual, and for country and motorway drives effectively unavoidable. They are billed as what they are: two units.
When comparing
If a school quotes a strikingly low lesson price, it is worth asking what it refers to — and whether special drives and the test drive carry the same rate. On our prices page every item is listed separately.
Why special drives are billed differently
Because they are out longer and travel further. A motorway drive uses more fuel and more time than a loop through Flingern, and the twelve compulsory drives therefore have their own rate at most schools. Their number is fixed, so this part of the bill is known exactly in advance.
What you can influence
- Regularity — by far the biggest lever on the total number
- Preparation: knowing the theory means not spending driving time on rules
- Appointments you reliably keep — short-notice cancellations cost time on both sides
- Taking honest feedback, instead of pushing for the test too early
What a lesson costs here, and how the other items add up, is on the prices page — and what makes up the total is a post of its own.