For driving instructors

The referral happens without you in the room.

Almost every pupil you get was recommended by somebody, in a conversation you were not part of. Cardr gives your pupils and their parents something they can forward in one tap, and takes the enquiry back to you as a contact rather than a missed call.

Driving instruction is a referral business run by somebody who cannot answer the phone. You are in a car with a learner for most of the working day, so enquiries arrive as missed calls that go to a competitor by the evening. And the recommendation that generates them happens between two parents at a school gate, with you nowhere nearby. Cardr gives them a card that forwards in one tap, captures the enquiry as a contact instead of a missed call, and drafts the reply between lessons.

The real scene

The kerb, and the parent at the window.

Ten seconds at the end of a lesson, engine running, next pupil in twelve minutes. Sometimes you are not even there.

Where it happens

The kerb

Ten seconds at the end of a lesson, engine running, next pupil in twelve minutes. Sometimes you are not even there.

  • You are driving Most of the working day is spent in a car with a learner. An enquiry that needs answering now is an enquiry lost.
  • Not in the room The recommendation happens between two parents at a school gate, with you nowhere near it.
  • Ten seconds The parent comes to the car window at the end of a lesson and the next pupil is in twelve minutes.

Every constraint above is what decides the format. A card that fails any one of the three does not get used a second time, however good it looks.

Two handovers matter and neither is a networking event. The first is the parent who comes out to the car, wants to know about their younger one, and has about ten seconds before you have to be somewhere else. The second, and the bigger one, is a conversation between two parents that you are not present for at all.

The second is the one to design for. Whatever you hand a pupil has to be forwardable: something they can send to somebody else in one tap, that arrives complete and looks like you. A link to a card does that. A printed card in a glovebox does not, and nor does a phone number written on the back of a receipt.

Then there is the phone. You cannot take a call mid-lesson, and a learner driver enquiry that reaches voicemail usually goes to whoever answers first. An enquiry that arrives as a contact with a name and a note attached is still there at half six, which is the first moment you could ever have replied anyway.

The card itself

What it looks like on the phone.

Not a mock-up. The artwork below is drawn by the same function that draws the inside of the signed .pkpass file, in the same colours the real pass carries, so this is what Wallet shows.

Cardr UpdatedToday
GailPrentice
CoversStockport, SK1-8
WaitingSix weeks

cardr.co/gail-prentice

Scan or tap to savei
An example card in the copper design. The holder is invented; the rendering is not. All eight designs are on Pro, three on the free plan.
What you get

Built for a day you spend in the passenger seat.

  • Forwardable in one tap. A pupil can send your card to another parent without retyping anything, and it arrives looking like you rather than like a copied phone number.
  • Enquiries as contacts, not missed calls. Their name and number come back to you through the exchange, so nothing depends on you being free to pick up.
  • WhatsApp on the card. It is how learners and parents actually talk to you, and it is one of the standard link types on the free plan.
  • The reply drafted. Written from the enquiry, so answering four of them between lessons is a few minutes rather than an evening.
  • Prices and availability that can change. Put a link to your rates or your waiting list on the card and update it whenever it moves. Every copy corrects itself.
  • Nothing to install for a fifteen year old’s parent. Apple Wallet is already there. No app, no signup, no email address handed over.
Questions

Driving instructors, answered.

How does a pupil pass my card on to somebody else?

They send the link, or show the QR code from their own phone. It arrives as your full card rather than as a number with no context, which is the difference between a recommendation that gets acted on and one that gets lost. This is the main way driving instructors get work, so it is worth setting the card up as though forwarding is its primary job.

I cannot answer the phone during lessons. Does that matter?

It is the reason the exchange is worth more to you than the card is. An enquiry that comes through your card arrives as a contact with a name attached and waits for you, rather than as a missed call that has already rung somebody else by the time you park.

Can I put my prices on it?

Put a link to them rather than the numbers themselves, then you can change them without touching the card. Either works. Prices printed on the card are also fine, because unlike a printed card you can correct them and everyone holding it gets the correction.

Do I need an NFC card for the car?

No, and a QR code is better in a car anyway: it can be a sticker on the window or the dashboard that anybody can scan from outside without you handing anything over. Cardr sells no hardware. If you already have an NFC card, point it at your cardr.co address and it will work.

What does it cost?

Free forever for the card, the Apple Wallet pass and the two-way exchange, with no card details taken. Pro is £12 a month, or £9 billed annually, for the contact list, the drafted replies and the reminders. Sixty-day money back guarantee.

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Free forever. About a minute to build.

Nothing for the other person to install, and no card details to start.

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