Practice—selling safety to teen drivers

This paper provides an overview of the Practice supervised driving education program.

Practice was developed in 2003 by NZ Transport Agency and Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) to address young driver inexperience by promoting 120 hours of supervised driving practice to learner drivers and their supervisors.

There is no mandated requirement for supervised driving as part of New Zealand’s graduated driver licensing system (GDLS). On average, learner drivers in New Zealand gain only 40-50 hours of supervised driving practice before they begin to drive solo.

Initially Practice was a paper-based information campaign. Market research in 2007 supported the program concept, but found poor connection between teens and the resources. Redevelopment in 2009 to use print and web-based resources in an interactive program, and new targeted marketing, has resulted in a 100% increase in registrations among the target market of 15-19 year old learner drivers.

The website, www.practice.co.nz, provides users with driving skills web tutorials and the ability to keep track of their progress towards the next stage of the GDLS. They also receive hazard perception and risk management training via an interactive CD-ROM. Their driving supervisor receives an in-car guide that covers all the skills and situations a learner driver needs experience in.

Most importantly, ACC’s outcome analysis shows that drivers participating in Practice experience lower motor vehicle accident claim rates than non-participants.