Advanced Driving School to relocate

Matt Bither, co-owner of Advanced Driving School in Porterville, said Monday the business will move from its current location on West Teapot Dome Avenue to West Olive Avenue in April.

“It’s better business to be in town,” Bither said. “It’s closer and people don’t have to travel as far — everything is about location, location, location.”

The local driving school, a branch of the Advanced Career Institute, has been at West Teapot Dome Avenue for more than a decade. Bither explained that the school originally opened in 1997, on Putnam Avenue as a car driving school but moved to its current location to offer a truck driving program.

“I’ve always wanted to move back in town since we’re not running the truck driving school out here,” Bither said.

Rather than renew the lease for the current site, the company began looking at sites within the city and opted for a building at 504 W. Olive Ave., across the street from Porterville High School.

“The location was available, nicer and bigger and Olive Avenue is a main boulevard. We wanted somewhere that was on a main boulevard,” Bither said.

Bither stressed that the school will still offer truck and bus driving training by shuttling students from Porterville to its Visalia campus.

Currently, the school offers behind-the-wheel driver’s training for teenagers, adults, and seniors at its Porterville campus, and offers welding courses and bus- and truck-driving courses at its Visalia campus.

According to Bither, the company hopes to offer traffic school for drunken driving (driving under the influence) once at the new location.

“We are not approved to do that yet, we are just starting the process to become a DUI provider,” he said.

Come November, when the school will be accredited for one full year, the company will revisit the possibility of a truck-driving program opening at the local school, Bither said.