Aim: Show young drivers the dangers

When young people are dying for want of driver training, Whangarei-based insurance guru Richard Ahlers says you don't say the Government should do something or call for a commission - you act. So he has.
One of  New Zealand's most successful insurance practitioners, he has set up a nationwide Academy of Advanced Driver Training, mainly for the under-25s.
Driver capability will be assessed at five race-tracks around the country by  17 full-time trainers. One-to-one remedial training will be done on the spot to address areas of weakness and show  how to cope with  potentially catastrophic driving events.
The phone line has been running hot with callers making bookings since two television appearances this week. TVNZ presenter Alison Mau said to him "give me your card, I want my children to do this".
 Mr Ahlers said New Zealand's standards of driver training were laughable.
"There's an absolute dearth of driver training for anyone, particularly for young people. We send people who are hardly more than children out to die in high-powered vehicles.
"They hop into a car saying, 'I'm fine because my mum or my dad or my brother taught me to drive', and it's a recipe for disaster."
His company, Club Auto, is in contact with young drivers every day  and he has a soft spot for them (Club Auto insures people mainline insurance companies are reluctant to deal with,  such as the under-25s, people with criminal convictions or disabilities, people who have had several accidents, travellers, taxis, mobility scooters).
"The public perception is that the under-25s are not very good drivers and it is true that some have a tendency to be boy racers but, by and large, they are just 'infant drivers' - people in the very early stages of their driving life," he says.
Club Auto has formed an alliance with a firm called Advanced Driver Training to deliver the academy's services. Owner Stewart Roddick is a former adviser to ACC and the NZ Defence Force, and was a NZ Police College tutor in advanced driving.
 Mr Ahlers said it was not about money for either company, but stepping up to the line. Those who passed the "short, sharp and very applied" course would get a certificate, which would earn them a discount on a Club Auto premium if they chose to insure with the company. The course cost was $345.
"Why shouldn't someone in the industry put up their hand to upskill this age group, instead of simply running away from insuring them?
"Very young people are playing with powerful, volatile machines that previous generations never had access to. We need to give them the gift of surviving - and spare parents those terrible nail-biting nights waiting for young people to come home."