Test, fail, get a free critique: Dannevirke driving mentor says she’s lost 75% of her customers

Nikki Martin is passionate about helping drivers through the licence process.

A Dannevirke driving mentor says the number of people she was taking for lessons dropped by 75 per cent as soon as the Government allowed learner drivers to resit practical licence tests for free.

The free retest scheme, which learner drivers say has also increased wait times for testing, is now under the microscope in Wellington.

Owner and operator of Learner Licence Theory Tararua Nikki Martin said learner drivers were resitting practical driving tests to avoid the cost of taking lessons.

Minister of Transport Simeon Brown said this week he is talking with the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi and the Ministry of Transport to deal with the issue, which he said could include reintroducing resitting fees.

He said the continued delays for the tests have been unacceptable.

In October, the rules changed to mean drivers only needed to pay an application fee and changing, rebooking and cancelling tests became free.

NZTA said this week that most regions have improved over the year, but it does expect to keep seeing high demand for practical tests.

Martin said the wait list for getting a lesson with Tararua Learner Licence Theory was now just one week, well down on October last year.

Nikki Martin is passionate about helping drivers through the licence process.

She believed that due to the financial situation of many Tararua families, the cheaper option was to continue to book a practical test, fail it, and receive a free critique, rather than get lessons to improve driving skills before testing.

“I lost three-quarters of my clientele overnight.

“Our failure rate is about 60 per cent in Dannevirke alone, and you can imagine how expensive that is for families and people to keep going back and doing it with the resit fees.”

Martin said she was focused on getting students through the test but also taught them about the vehicle itself, including how to keep it roadworthy and check tyres.

She said people in rural communities faced many obstacles with lessons due to proximity to an urban area and said illiteracy and language barriers were also a factor.

“I had a student, his parents live 40km out of town and so he is great at driving country roads. But get him into town where it matters for the testing and he had absolutely no idea.”

Martin had four driving lessons available in May and encouraged students to have lessons behind the wheel before booking a practical test.

In the past, Hastings has been named as one of the harder places to sit a practical test. Photo / Paul Taylor

Meanwhile, a Hawke’s Bay woman says long wait times for testing are a part of the reason she is still on a learner licence.

As of 9am on May 3, there were 14 available test dates at VTNZ testing stations in Napier, seven dates in Hastings, 11 dates in Dannevirke and four dates available in Central Hawke’s Bay and Wairoa over the next four months — the only places to sit a practical test.

Learner driver Tegan Jaggard, 21, doesn’t want to still be on the L plates she’s had for years, but has just renewed her learner licence to give her time to get lessons so she could “get it done right the first time”.

She got her learner’s licence when she turned 16 and now has to rely on her parents or friends to drive her to work and social activities due to the restrictions placed on learner drivers who must be supervised and display L plates.

Tegan Jaggard wants to avoid failure when attempting her restricted test. Photo / Warren Buckland

“I very much regress to being a teenager, it feels like I’ve lost a lot of independence.”

She had her first restricted practical driving test booked for April this year but made the decision to delay it until May, and is even considering pushing that date back.

She was close to getting her restricted when she was 17 but plans to do so were put on hold due to lockdown and not being able to take driving lessons.

She said she faced at least a two-month wait between test times and said lessons were harder to get due to full-time work.

“When I go to book lessons and then I can’t get any for weeks and weeks it doesn’t work out.”

Jaggard felt the system could be improved with more staff to take tests and a place for adults to sit their restricted test and not feel “ashamed”.

Tegan Jaggard said she didn't want to fall into a pattern of failure. Photo / Warren Buckland

The head of driver training at AA, Roger Venn, suggested students plan ahead to ensure they get a preferred time slot when booking driving lessons, which came with a two-week wait in Hawke’s Bay.

“We recommend a learner has practised for at least 120 hours before attempting a practical licence test.”

He told Hawke’s Bay Today AA was “in the process of training an extra instructor and hopes to have them up and running soon in the Napier and Hastings area”.

Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings and Central Hawke’s Bay newsrooms. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and has a love for sharing stories about farming and rural communities.