Barber’s

Still Driving Forward

More than 60 years after a Columbus police officer began teaching adults to drive, Barber’s Driving School is serving a fourth generation of local families while reaching students across Georgia and beyond.

By Monica Jones

Ask almost anyone who grew up in Columbus about driving school, and there is a good chance the name Barber’s will surface before the question is finished.

Some remember the marked training cars on city streets. Others took driver’s ed there as teenagers, completed Defensive Driving after a ticket or attended DUI School while working to regain their driving privileges. Today, Barber’s is beginning to teach the great-grandchildren of some of its earliest students.

That kind of familiarity is earned over time. In the case of Barber’s Driving School, it has been earned over more than six decades.

B.C. and Coree Barber founded the family business in 1964 as AAA Driving School of Columbus. B.C. Barber was a full-time Columbus police officer who had taken a part-time position with a fledgling driving school. After about a year of doing much of the work while someone else collected the profits, he made a characteristically practical decision: he bought the owner out.

The business began inside the Barbers’ home in Cascade Hills. Coree handled the administrative side, while B.C. provided behind-the-wheel instruction to teenagers and adults. Demand soon grew beyond what one instructor and one car could accommodate.

The reasons people needed lessons reflected a changing Columbus and a changing country.

Women were entering the workforce in greater numbers, often making a second family vehicle necessary. Widows who had depended on their husbands for transportation were learning to drive for the first time in their 50s, 60s and even 70s. Soldiers returning to Fort Benning from overseas brought wives from countries where driving (or even riding in a car at all) was uncommon.

Barber’s began teaching students from different cultures, backgrounds and age groups, including adults with limited English skills. As enrollment increased, the family purchased additional cars and recruited other police officers to help provide instruction.

By the early 1970s, the school had moved from the family home into an office and classrooms at Cross Country Plaza. It also faced a formidable new competitor when Sears entered the local driver-training market.

The Barbers did not try to match the financial strength of a national corporation. Instead, they focused on personalized instruction, flexible service and treating customers like family. Within a few years, Sears left the Columbus market, while Barber’s continued growing.

Barber’s had always taught teenagers and adults, but its services expanded significantly after Georgia passed the Driver Improvement Act in the 1970s. The legislation created new requirements and opportunities for programs addressing suspended licenses, traffic violations, alcohol- and drug-related offenses.

Barber’s began offering the Risk Reduction Program, commonly called DUI School, and the Driver Improvement Program, better known as Defensive Driving. The company later worked with Georgia officials to help develop instructional programs and strengthen standards within the industry.

Its reach continued growing. Barber’s contracted with Roosevelt Warm Springs Rehabilitation Hospital for 11 years, teaching more than 3,000 people with physical and mental challenges to drive. It trained commercial truck drivers and provided driver education programs through schools across Georgia and Alabama.

By the time the business entered its next generation of family leadership, it had trained tens of thousands of drivers from more than 100 countries.

Today, Barber’s Driving School is owned by Al Barber, son of founders B.C. and Coree Barber. Buster Barber oversees the company’s daily operations, while his son, Blaze Barber, has joined the business as the fourth generation of the family to carry on its legacy.

When COVID-19 temporarily restricted traditional classroom instruction, Barber’s shifted rapidly into virtual teaching. Employees had to learn new technology, instructors had to monitor students through a screen and customers had to be taught how to join and participate in class from home.

That transition expanded Barber’s from a primarily local operation into one capable of serving students throughout Georgia and beyond. The school has even worked with military personnel attending classes from overseas.

Barber’s Driving School is certified and approved by the Georgia Department of Driver Services. Its virtual DDS classes are offered through what the state recognizes as Live Remote Classroom Instruction, using Zoom as the school’s platform.

One distinction Buster Barber is careful to explain is the difference between a traditional online course and what Georgia recognizes as Live Remote Classroom Instruction.

The Georgia DDS does not recognize self-paced online courses in which students log in, complete work on their own schedule and leave whenever they choose. Barber’s Live Remote Classroom Instruction requires students to attend at scheduled times with a live instructor, remain visible on camera and participate just as they would in a physical classroom.

“You can’t be driving, working, having friends over, cooking or vacuuming,” Buster said. “There is accountability.”

The required classroom hours never change. What changes is access. Before Live Remote Classroom Instruction became available, people who had moved away from Georgia often had to fly back to the state, book hotel rooms and remain in Georgia for several days to satisfy Georgia DDS reinstatement requirements. Today, eligible students can complete those same requirements virtually. The option also helps people whose licenses have been suspended, eliminating the challenge of finding transportation just to attend class.

Barber’s continues to offer in-person instruction for those who prefer a traditional classroom. According to Buster, however, most of the school’s classroom customers now choose Live Remote Classroom Instruction.

The company currently offers five Risk Reduction (DUI School) classes and five Driver Improvement (Defensive Driving) classes each week. Morning, daytime, evening and weekend schedules are offered to fit working adults.

“I believe our classes suit anyone’s work schedule at this point,” Buster said.

The company also recently relocated to its new home on University Avenue, across from Columbus State University in the former Command College police training center, giving the growing business more room while keeping its roots firmly planted in Columbus.

Barber’s provides Joshua’s Law courses, behind-the-wheel instruction, Georgia road tests and driver evaluations for people whose ability may have been affected by an accident, stroke, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or another medical condition.

For nearly 20 years, Barber’s has also served as an approved Georgia road testing location, allowing eligible drivers to complete the driving portion of their Georgia driver’s license test seven days a week, rain or shine. Like the school’s driver evaluations, each road test places a trained examiner in the vehicle to assess a driver’s ability in real-world conditions.

Some evaluations are requested by physicians. Others provide peace of mind to drivers or family members concerned about whether a loved one can continue driving safely. 

A person may pass without restrictions, be advised to drive only under certain conditions or be asked to return for another evaluation as a medical condition progresses. For many adults, surrendering a license also means surrendering independence. Objective evaluations help families and physicians make those decisions based on ability rather than fear.

Buster also encourages parents to have teenagers obtain their learner’s permit as soon as they become eligible, even if the family is not yet ready for them to begin driving independently.

One reason is the Georgia Driver’s Education Commission (GDEC) scholarship program. Qualifying students ages 15 through 17 with a Georgia instructional permit may receive funding that covers the cost of an approved Driver Education course. Priority is given to children and dependents of public safety professionals and members of the United States military killed in the line of duty, followed by applicants who demonstrate financial need. Because Georgia requires teens to hold a permit for one year and one day before receiving a Class D license, waiting too long can also mean missing the scholarship’s age requirements.

More than 60 years after B.C. and Coree Barber began teaching students from their Columbus home, the business now employs approximately 30 people and offers services its founders could never have imagined delivering through a computer screen.

The roads have changed. The technology has changed. The rules, vehicles and distractions drivers face have changed.

Barber’s Driving School has survived because it has changed with them, while continuing to do what the Barber family set out to do in 1964: meet people where they are and help them move safely forward.