DRIVE Lite – Driving Instructors & Training Providers

Welcome to the December edition of DRIVE Lite – driving instructors. This will be the final edition of 2023 and summarises the wonderful feedback we have received from you this year.

From Monday 25 December 2023 to Friday 5 January 2024, we will be operating at reduced levels. We will resume at full capacity on Monday 8 January 2024. During this period, we may take longer to respond to your enquiries and feedback.

Please continue to use existing channels to contact us over the break as detailed below:

Key achievements for 2023

This year we:

• Licensed 320 new driving instructors and three older driver assessors.
• Started expanding the accessibility of Motorcycle Licence Training and Testing Scheme (MLTTS) to more novice riders by making it easier for our regional customers to access rider training and testing services. Four new sites are already open with more to come in the new year.
• 31,407 learner drivers completed the Safer Drivers Course this year. They have developed safe driving skills and are better prepared for driving solo.

‘Safety never takes a holiday’ communications toolkit now available.

Road safety is an important part of everyday life and doesn’t take a break during the holiday season. Help promote the Transport for NSW (Transport) ‘safety never takes a holiday’ initiative by encouraging your colleagues, communities and loved ones to exercise extra care on the road this summer.

For a copy of the toolkit, please email towardszero@transport.nsw.gov.au

You can also follow us and share our ‘safety never takes a holiday’ posts on the NSW Road Safety Facebook page between 14 December 2023 and 13 January 2024.

Feel free to publish your own road safety messaging using the tagline and hashtag #SafetyNeverTakesAHoliday across your social channels, newsletters, and websites.

Stop it or Cop it

Leading into the holiday season, Transport wishes to remind drivers, riders and all other road users that they can be caught breaking road rules anywhere and at any time.
Enforcement Stop it or Cop it – YouTube

Thank you

Thank you for your time and interest in reading Drive Lite this year. After only six months, Drive Lite has proven to be a helpful resource and an effective channel for Transport to communicate directly with the people who participate in our regulatory schemes.

As we near the end of 2023, we in the Regulatory Operations branch would like to thank all the people who made the effort to complete our feedback survey. We’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response and a huge range of ideas suggested for future topics. It’s taking us a while to go through it all and prioritise content, but please rest assured that we’re looking into every submission.

Some of the key themes from feedback across all regulatory schemes are around providing more education and reminders on rules and regulations. This includes road rules for drivers and safety and compliance regulations for vehicles.

There is a strong interest in auditing and compliance to ensure that everyone who participates in our regulatory schemes – as a bus operator, driving instructor, motor dealer, authorised vehicle inspector or certifier and more – does what they are supposed to do to the required standards to keep people safe on our roads. Much of the compliance and assurance work that we do goes under the radar. We’re going to share these audits and investigations with you more in the future so that you can learn from our findings on how to avoid non-compliance issues.

Next year, Drive Lite will be delivered in a slightly different format to cater for reader suggestions and our new email delivery software. You may notice that we will be using a new email address – drivinginstructorprogram@engage.transport.nsw.gov.au – rest assured, this is still us. We look forward to sharing helpful content to help you comply with your regulatory requirements and share best-practice.