Driving Academy

The vendor opportunity at Driving Academy

Driving Academy is a small education franchise headquartered in New Jersey with just 6 total units — 4 franchised and 2 company-owned — according to its 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document. The franchised locations are spread across four states: Florida, New Jersey, Oregon, and Indiana. All four franchisees are single-unit operators; no multi-unit owners appear in the FDD. Average unit volume sits at $2,055,650, and the royalty rate is 10% of gross revenue. For a software vendor, the immediate addressable market is those 4 franchised locations, plus the 2 company-owned units if the franchisor is open to vendor discussions at the corporate level. Year-over-year unit growth is not disclosed in the 2025 filing, and the operator footprint shows no units in the 2–9, 10–24, or 25+ bands, signaling a flat or very early-stage system.

Who controls software purchasing

The 2025 FDD lists two executives in Item 1: Jonathan Marques, President, and Anthony Johnson, Director of Training. No CIO, CTO, VP of IT, or procurement officer is named. In a system this small, software purchasing decisions almost certainly flow through the President’s office, with the Director of Training likely influencing any operational or educational technology choices. Vendors pitching Driving Academy should expect a centralized, relationship-driven buying process rather than a formal RFP cycle. There is no parent company on file; the brand appears independently owned, so no external corporate procurement layer exists.

Mandated and current tech stack

Driving Academy’s 2025 FDD mandates three categories of technology: customer contact software, Driving Academy proprietary software, and financial software. The proprietary system is named generically — “Driving Academy proprietary software” — with no third-party vendor disclosed. The customer contact and financial software mandates are also listed without specific vendor names, which means the franchisor either builds or white-labels these tools internally. For a vendor selling CRM, accounting, or operational platforms, the barrier is high: you would need to displace a mandated, likely deeply embedded proprietary stack. The FDD does not mention a point-of-sale system, scheduling tool, or learning management system by name, leaving those categories potentially open if they fall outside the “customer contact” and “financial” mandates.

Procurement, renewals, and timing

Item 8 of the 2025 FDD contains no procurement extract, so Driving Academy’s supplier designation policy — whether it uses designated suppliers, an approved-vendor program, or an open market — is not publicly disclosed. This absence itself is a signal: in a system of 6 units, formal procurement infrastructure is often minimal. Renewal terms from Item 17 show that franchisees can renew for an additional 5 years by providing written notice, being in full compliance, paying a renewal fee, meeting current training and qualification requirements, executing a general release, and upgrading the business to then-current standards. Critically, the FDD warns that the renewal contract “may have materially different terms and conditions than your original contract,” which could include new technology mandates. With initial 10-year terms and no disclosed recent growth, natural software evaluation windows will be infrequent unless triggered by a system-wide tech refresh or a renewal cycle.

How to read the Driving Academy FDD

The full 2025 Driving Academy Franchise Disclosure Document is embedded below. This is the primary source for every data point in this profile — unit counts, AUV, royalty rates, executive names, mandated technology, and renewal conditions. Software vendors should pay particular attention to Item 11 (franchisor’s obligations) for tech mandate language, Item 8 for any supplier restrictions that may appear in future filings, and Item 19 for financial performance representations that contextualize the $2.06 million AUV. Because the system is small and the tech stack is proprietary, the FDD is your best window into whether a displacement or complementary sale is feasible. For a ranked target list of franchise systems matched to your software category, FranCloud can help you prioritize where to pitch next.