Improving access to driver licensing

A driver licence is a key to life’s opportunities, including jobs, training and community participation.

It enables people to become safe legal drivers, access services including health care, achieve independence, and improve wellbeing.

But some people are missing out because of barriers in the driver licensing system.

Budget 22 allocated $4.05 million per year to NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) to reduce barriers and make gaining a driver licence more accessible for people across Aotearoa New Zealand.

Our focus is on communities that evidence has shown face significant barriers to getting a driver licence including:

Māori
Pacific peoples
people who are unemployed or receiving a main benefit
disabled people and people with health conditions
youth at risk of unemployment or at high equity index schools
people with literacy difficulties
new migrants and former refugees
people who have committed driving offences
people in rural or remote areas.

Purpose:

By making driver licence training and testing more accessible for people in these hard-to-reach communities, we aim to:

improve access to employment, education, services, and community activities
improve road safety by enabling more people to become safe legal drivers on our roads
reduce the number of people entering the criminal justice system due to driving offences.

What we are doing

We had kōrero with people involved in driver licensing across Aotearoa and identified changes to improve accessibility to the driver licensing system for people in their communities:

Community driver testing officers

We introduced community driver testing officers, who work with community providers to offer testing in a familiar environment, awhi and pastoral care for students, and more flexible test times.

The use of community driver testing officers was initially trialled in partnership with Tairāwhiti REAP (Rural Education Activities Programme) on the East Coast, and local police and Far North REAP in Te Tai Tokerau Northland. They continue to operate in those regions, along with Hawke’s Bay, Bay of Plenty and Auckland.

In the 2025-26 financial year, we are bringing community driver testing officers to more locations with Waikato, West Coast and the South Island prioritised for short term investment.

These regions have been prioritised based on road safety considerations, access to testing, socio-economic barriers, and MSD driver training programmes.

Increasing access to practical testing, including bringing more CDTOs to more regions is a focus of our long-term strategy.

Research has shown that every dollar invested in community driver testing officers delivers $2.40 of measurable good for New Zealand.*This social return on investment includes increased numbers of licenced drivers, better lives, higher incomes and reduced government cost.

*NZTA Community Driver Testing Officer ImpactLab GoodMeasure Report (June, 2024)

Driver test routes

To improve access to testing, we added new testing routes in Matamata, Upper Hutt, Kaikohe, Dargaville, Wairoa, Waipukurau and Ōpōtiki.

We are exploring the development of more test routes.

Mobile testing

In September 2023, we began trialing mobile theory testing with AA and Eastbay REAP in Ōpōtiki, Bay of Plenty, to see if it’s an effective way to reach people who’ve had difficulty accessing learner testing, especially people living in remote rural communities.

In 2025, a three-month practical driver testing pilot between VTNZ and NZTA is deploying VTNZ testing officers and portable testing units to community locations in priority regions based on requests from providers.

In the 2025-26 financial year, we aim to:

expand mobile theory testing for hard-to-reach groups
make mobile theory testing accessible for groups under 15.

Partnering with AA and VTNZ

Our mobile theory testing pilot with AA and practical testing pilot with VTNZ explore new testing models with testing agents supporting providers to deliver testing in communities.

We will explore further opportunities to work with AA and VTNZ to improve access to testing in communities.

Learning resources for diverse communities

Budget 22 allocated investment for resources for people who speak different languages. We are translating:

guides to the driver licensing system
Drive learning resources
factsheets
learning materials
theory test in Fijian.

Translations are prioritised by resource requests, citizenship rates, test applications by country of origin and migration statistics.

These translations build on the translation of the NZ Road Code into te reo Māori and the driver theory test into Filipino in 2024.

Translated resources will be made available on our Drive and NZTA websites.

Drive(external link)

Driver licences

Ngā tikanga hautū waka o Aotearoa: te puka ōkawa | Road Code in te reo Māori

Better regional support

We introduced regional advisors to strengthen and develop community driver training and mentoring programmes in communities around Aotearoa.

We also introduced education advisors to work with providers to create learning resources that meet the needs of diverse communities. They also work with communities that want to deliver learner licensing workshops using Drive resources and train the trainers to be able to deliver this.

Regional advisors

Northland	Arthur Webber
Auckland	Bex Gilchrist
Waikato, Taranaki, Wellington	Kelly Martin
Bay of Plenty and Tairāwhiti	Arlouise Brooking
Hawke's Bay and Central (Manawatu and Wairarapa)	Davey Forbes
Te Waipounamu South Island	Tony Ratima-Lane

Safer driver education advisors

Toni Fauonuku, based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland	Toni Fauonuku
Makareta McDonnell, based in Hawke’s Bay	Makareta McDonnell
Angela McDonnell, based in Christchurch	Angela McDonnell

What’s been achieved so far

In February 2025, we reached the milestone of conducting 10,000 practical tests through funding allocated in Budget 22 to improve access to testing.

Pass rates through this model are above the national average: 83% restricted, 93% full.

This reflects the quality of programmes offered by providers, who do not put forward students to test until they’re ready.

In September 2024, our work to improve driver licensing access was recognised when we received the Better Outcomes and Prime Minister’s awards at the Hāpai Hapori Spirit of Service Awards. This award was shared with our cross-agency partners who worked with us on these initiatives.

Hāpai Hapori Spirit of Service Awards

Who's involved

Mahi to improve access to driver licensing was initiated by the Driver Licensing Improvement programme in June 2022. NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) led this 2-year programme in collaboration with:

Ministry of Social Development
Ministry of Transport - Te Manatū Waka
NZ Police
Te Puni Kōkiri
Accident Compensation Corporation
Ministry for Pacific Peoples
Department of Corrections
with support from the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and the Driving Change Network.

Following the conclusion of the programme in June 2024, this work is being continued by other NZTA teams, in collaboration with our agency partners and the Driving Change Network.

Driving Change Network(external link)