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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Advertisement Email Story to a Friend May 1, 2006 Personal driving instructor Kent Puckett keeps a watchful eye as 15-year-old Lauren Thompson of Medford practices backing up her vehicle. (Mail Tribune / Denise Baratta) Driving home a lesson to teens, seniors EDITOR'S NOTE: This is one in a weekly series of profiles on locally owned and operated businesses in Southern Oregon. Kent L. Puckett and Associates Driving School Owner: Kent L. Puckett Age: 62 Address: 110 E. Sixth St., Medford Advertisement Phone: 773-3735 Employees: 1 What do you do and how long have you been doing it? We train people to drive or correct their driving habits, depending on who we are taking out. We mainly work with high schools in the graduated licensing program and older adults who want to keep their licenses. We started the school in 1996. How long have you lived in the Rogue Valley? Since 1970. I moved here from Klamath Falls. What inspired you to go into this line of work? I was a senior infantry instructor in the Army and the style of instruction was the same as we were doing for driver education. So it made for an easy move right into it. I taught driver improvement for the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services from 1990 to 1996. I did about four classes a year with them. What decision or action would you change if you could do it again? We had a chance to buy a school here, but I wasn't ready for it. That was when Frank Young passed away. He had a driving school and he was working with the public schools. Frank had more instructors because he had two or three cars. Everything has changed since then with the amount of training needed. We just kind of slid into it one step at a time. To insure my one car it costs $161 per month and my office is insured separately for liability. What's the toughest business decision you've made? I never got into anything where I was in debt. We haven't had to make any tough decisions, because I'm still in the office complex I was in when I sold insurance. The toughest would be to expand into other areas — for a while we did some classes in Grants Pass and for a while we had some people coming over to take classes from the coast. I thought about expanding but that would've meant adding employees, cars and you would have to take on contracts with schools. Some of our fellow schools up north have as many as 23 cars and instructors, and I wasn't inclined to do that. Who are your competitors? Rogue Community College. We come under state law, which tells us what to teach and what we can and can't do. The public schools don't have that criteria yet. I typically charge $250 for six hours of driving and 15 hours of class and student activities, unless we take out an older driver and we charge them $200. How do you define success for your business? Whenever we have enough students for the next class. Our school always takes 10 to 15 students per class. What are your goals? I don't know if I plan to expand as much as to develop the class so that when I decide to retire I can do this on a moderated scale. I guess my goal would be to expand curriculum to where we are able to stay up with the demands of Oregon. The state right now is pulling the private and public sectors to where we are doing the same thing. What training or education did you need? I had to pass a written exam and then pass a driving test. It's similar to a test a 16-year-old would take except maybe you drive around an hour instead of 20 minutes; the examiners are looking for the same things. To teach graduated licensing classes you have to attend the basics class put on by Oregon Traffic Safety Education Association, then do behind the wheel training as well as classroom training. They want to teach you how they want the classes taught. When you pass all the tests, then you are either qualified to work for a public school or qualified to open up your own business. What's your advice for budding entrepreneurs? I don't know if I would want to get heavily into debt until I was there doing the business. I didn't go out and buy a car for driver's education until I was licensed. To suggest an idea for this column, contact reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Discount Hotel Reservations online casinos news Ashley Furniture HomeStore Send Flowers Southern Oregon Loans California Casinos GMAT Prep Windermere Van Vleet Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Online Pharmacy Advertisements Advertisement