The Australian Road Rules defines an “older driver” as any driver aged 75 years or above. Older drivers must provide an updated medical review, showing they’re still fit to drive. This rule aims to improve road safety. Drivers above this age can be suffering from physical or cognitive impairments. In this guide to older driver licensing, you’ll read about how to keep your drivers licence updated.
It’s essential to know the Australian road rules before attempting to drive in NSW or Vic to avoid making simple mistakes. A driving theory test is the first step to getting a driver’s licence in both NSW and Vic, so let’s look at some of the basic road rules. It’s also necessary to understand the demerit points system and how it works. You will have to research this system as there are various ways to get these points, and they include fines and suspensions.
Driver fatigue is one of the leading causes of fatalities on Australian roads, along with speeding and alcohol consumption. Research by Transport NSW also suggests that fatigue is just as dangerous as drunk driving, if not more so. In fact, staying awake for 17 hours has similar effects on cognitive ability as a 0.05/100ml blood alcohol content.
After 21 hours, this figure skyrockets to 0.15, which is classified as “High Range” and well over the legal limit. Moreover, driving tired after being awake for 24 hours increases the risk of a car accident seven-fold.
We’ve all heard the term “blind spot” before, but what does it actually mean when it comes to driving? In this article, we’ll discuss what blind spots are, how to identify them, and what you can do to avoid them. Stay safe out there!
Blind spots are areas around a vehicle that the driver cannot see, either in the rearview or side mirrors or by simply looking over their shoulder. Because of their location, blind spots can pose a serious safety hazard, as they can easily obscure other vehicles, cyclists, or pedestrians.
Blind spots can vary in size depending on the type of vehicle. For example, larger vehicles such as trucks and SUVs tend to have larger blind spots than smaller vehicles such as cars.
While blind spots are an inherent part of driving, there are some steps that you can take to minimise their impact. Here are some tips for dealing with your blind spots:
You can’t improve your blind spot awareness if you don’t know where they are. So first things first, take inventory of where your blind spots are located. For most people, the biggest blind spot is directly behind their vehicle. Another common blind spot is at the periphery of our vision; objects that are far to the left or right may fall outside of our field of view.
Once you know where your blind spots are, you can start taking steps to mitigate them.
Before driving, make sure your main mirrors are properly adjusted. They should be positioned so that you can see the entire width of your vehicle in them. You may also want to consider tilting them slightly downward so you can see the roadway behind you more clearly. In addition, be sure to use your rearview mirror when changing lanes or making turns.
Another way to reduce blind spots is to simply look over your shoulder before changing lanes or making a turn. This may seem like a simple task, but it can make a big difference in terms of safety.
This is an obvious one, but it is worth repeating. Turn signals are there for a reason– to let other drivers know what you’re planning to do. Failing to signal can cause serious accidents, especially if another driver is in your blind spot. Make it a habit to always use your turn signals, even if there doesn’t seem to be any other traffic around.
The best time to check your blind spots is actually before you even get behind the wheel. That’s right, even before you start driving, you should take a moment to familiarise yourself with your car’s blind spots. This can be done by simply walking around your car and looking at where the mirrors are positioned. You should also check your blind spots before changing lanes, when merging onto a highway, and when making a turn.
Want to improve your driving skills? The Ltrent Driving School offers a variety of courses to fit your needs. We have everything from beginner to advanced driving courses, and our experienced instructors are here to help you every step of the way. For NSW learner drivers the Safer Drivers Course is also a great way to get theory and practical driving lessons. Contact us today to learn more.
When you’re taught how to drive, you’re taught the most important rules such as following road signs — but there’s a good chance that there are other more subtle rules are left out from your knowledge.
These rules aren’t just a caution to help you avoid the law, but are also in place to help you become a safer driver.
While the cost of a driving lesson isn’t a perfect indicator of quality, driving schools who put more resources into the quality of their lessons may increase the cost of their lessons.
You might first look at driving and think it’s relatively easy to learn — but even the easiest skills are better learnt with a deliberate structure. A simple analogy would be trying to get better at marathon running. If you just ran every day without tracking your improvements, you might get better.
But what if there was someone to teach you the proper form, pacing and tracked your strengths and pain points?
This would be the biggest difference between a cheaper driving lesson and a more expensive one. The difference between someone who has a system crafted to improve your driving skills and someone who just sits in the car with you and only helps you with their intuition.
We’ll start with the cheaper driving lessons first. They may range from $40–$50/hr and are usually an independent driving instructor. However, these lessons might typically involve a driving instructor who puts the minimal effort to teach you how to drive.
This would entail an instructor who takes you into a car that hasn’t been optimised for teaching and simply teaching you without ever trying to figure out what you currently know and need to learn.
With anything, whether it’s an iPhone or a cheap phone, you pay for the quality of the product or service. This is the same with driving lessons. These instructors may typically teach you the skills just to pass the driving test, but not to be a better driver in general.
It might seem counterintuitive for us to market ourselves as a more expensive driving school brand, but we feel that we’re justified in doing so. We’ve spent hours and hours on research to understand the best way to teach new students, make sure all our instructors know the process and acquire the best cars for students to drive in.
In the price you pay, you pay for an instructor following a process that we’ve improved over 50 years. You’re paying for a curriculum that is created not just to help you pass the driving test, but to make sure that you’re safe on the road.
This includes a 128-page handbook including 54 instruction topics with everything you need to know, a student record card so you can visually see what you’ve learnt and individually planned lessons.
What you’re really paying for when you pay for a lesson with LTrent is your time. You’re paying to get a lesson that will save your time. You’ll learn more in one hour with LTrent than one hour with a driving school that hasn’t put as much effort into perfecting the teaching process.
It’s the difference between trying to read a textbook and learning by yourself versus having a teacher who not only knows the material, but knows how to teach you as well.
Our philosophy is producing the best driving lesson possible and our value proposition to you is that you’re going to have a better experience with us than anywhere else. If you don’t believe that you received the best level of service and training, not only will we refund your money for your first lesson but we’ll give you 50% off your next session.
Find your driving lesson times or contact us
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Renewing your licence might not seem like an important task, but it’s useful to understand how to do – especially because you’re probably going to be driving all the way into old age and you’re going to need to renew your licence at some point. As well as this, if you ever drive unlicensed, you can be heavily punished.
Driving unlicensed
If you haven’t been manually staring at the expiry date of your driver’s licence being paranoid that it’s going to expire soon like most people, you’re going to receive a renewal notice six weeks before it expires. That is, you haven’t renewed your licence yet. Though if you didn’t receive any notice, it’s still your responsibility to make sure that you’re not driving with an expired licence.
If you do need to renew your licence, there are special conditions if you’re not on an unrestricted licence yet.
Learner licences
While other P1, P2 and unrestricted licence holders are permitted to renew their licence online, learner licence holders must attend a service centre or registry in person. Furthermore, learner licence holders must pass the knowledge test (the same test they passed to get their licence in the first place) to renew their licence.
Furthermore, drivers must pay the learner licence fee again. Despite this, it’s rare for someone to renew their learner licence as learner licences are valid for five years. This means that most people either progress to become P1 drivers or if they have chosen not to drive, simply use a photo card as a form of identification.
P1 and P2 licences
The amazing thing about a P1 and P2 licence is that there’s no time limit for moving through to the next stage of your licence and you’re able to renew your P1 and P2 licences as many times as you want.
P1 licences last 18 months before expiry and P2 licences last double that – 36 months. Furthermore, every renewal requires a fee.
P1 and P2 licence holders are able to renew their licences online.
Renewing online or in person
If you want to renew your licence online click here.
If you want to renew your licence in person, you can visit any service centre or registry and follow the steps given to you there. Typically this will involve filling out a form, providing your current licence and paying the required licence fee.
When you can renew
Remember that you’re able renew your licence up to 6 months before it expires. This means that there’s a half a year gap between being able to renew your licence and having your licence expire – plenty of time to make sure that you don’t drive around with an expired licence.
If you renew your licence within 6 months after the expiry date, your new licence’s expiry date will be calculated based on your previous licence. However, if you renew it more than 6 months after the expiry date, your licence will be reissued.
Cancelled licences
If your licence has been cancelled, suspended or disqualified – depending on the severity of the cause there are special steps you must take in order to renew your licence. To find out further information, call or visit a service centre and explain your situation.
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Important Update: Keys2Drive Program Ceased
LTrent previously offered a FREE driving lesson for learner drivers and their parents/supervisors under the Keys2Drive program. However, please note that the Keys2Drive program has been discontinued as of 30 June 2023.
So you’ve got your learner’s licence but you or your parents/supervisors are not sure of the best approach in learning how to drive. Luckily for you, LTrent has driving instructors affiliated with a special program called Keys2drive – an innovative approach to learn road safety through a free driving lesson.
This is an Australian Government-funded program designed to help learner drivers (only learners are allowed to go through this course) and their parents/supervisors with an accredited driving instructor, aimed to provide new drivers with the capacity to teach themselves and others the skills required to drive.
There’s an overwhelming statistic where new P1 driver’s are twenty to thirty times more likely to be harmed in a crash than an unrestricted driver. This is simply due to the new environment of driving alone as well as the untested confidence of finally getting a licence. In order to limit this statistic, a free lesson that encompasses techniques for self-improvement in driving is encouraged for learner drivers.
In order to attend the lessons, the learner driver must hold an Australian learners permit and a supervising driver must hold an unrestricted licence and attend the lesson. The reason the parent or supervisor should be at the lesson is so that it provides them with the skills and capacity to help understand how they can help the learner learn. Feedback from Keys2Drive has informed us that communication has improved between parents and their learners due to the capacity of the supervisors understanding how best to teach someone a new skill.
Keys2Drive offers a special 60 minute session that takes an entirely different approach to traditional driving lessons in the sense that the lesson attempts to teach the student to teach him or herself. This includes providing them with the resources and confidence to self-assess, self-instruct and self-supervise.
This makes up the first part of the lesson including examples of how these introspective techniques can be applied while driving. The remaining time is used on practically using these skills while driving and adding these mental models to your driving.
While the Keys2Drive lesson isn’t exactly like a traditional driving lesson, it certainly doesn’t replace it. It’s created to complement driving lessons as Keys2Drive teaches you psychological techniques for learning, and driving lessons teach you the driving techniques themselves. With both these tools equipped, you’ll learn more rapidly and broadly.
In fact, Keys2Drive recommends that you take the free lesson after you’ve done around 5-10 hours as you’ll have a basic understanding of how to drive and you’ll be reaching a point where further improvements in your driving can be learnt quickly. Similar to how if you’ve learnt your first few songs on a new instrument, you’re able to learn new songs even faster.
Despite this, Keys2Drive is extremely valuable for all learner drivers – even if you’re ready to take your driving test to become a P1 driver as you’re able to take the P Plate ready assessment which involves a scoring sheet checking whether or not you’re ready for your test.
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Despite being completely prepared to pass the driving test itself, your test can still be terminated because of external conditions — most of which you can control. These include making sure all your paperwork is ready and most importantly, that your vehicle is safe to drive and that your body is in a healthy state.
Your test can be immediately terminated if your testing vehicle is deemed unsuitable for safe use. There are a few checks that you can do before your driving test to ensure that your vehicle is ready.
Furthermore, if your vehicle is unsuitable for the class of the driving test — for example, you’re driving a car with an engine only full licence drivers are allowed to use, then your test can be automatically terminated.
For more information, look at Section 5 of the Guide to the Driving Test
One thing you have to remember before you go to the test is that you bring your Learner Driver Log Book and that it has been completed. This is crucial to the exam and if it has not been completed, you aren’t permitted to take the driving test.
Make sure that you take the test without any drugs and alcohol, not just due to its legality but also because it makes you an unsafe driver. If you’re suspected to be on any substances during the test, you can have your test terminated.
Note that it’s possible that your driving test can be terminated at no fault of your own. For example, if weather conditions are extremely poor that cause the driving test to be too demanding, you may be forced to reschedule your test. While this is unfortunate, it’s in place for your safety.
Above all else, remember to go to your driving test early so you don’t miss it. You can’t take the driving test if you aren’t there yourself. Remember to bring yourself to a healthy state so you have the best chances of passing the driving test
If you need any help with handling the logistics of the driving test, contact LTrent here
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