How parents can help their learner drivers

Parents may dread or welcome the day their young adult wants to learn to drive. The process of learning to drive can be long, expensive and emotional. Find your way through L plates to P plates and help your learner drivers come out safely on the other side.

You are a big influence

While it may not always feel like it, parents are a big influence on how their children drive. Even as young as 5, they have watched your driving and become accustomed to your habits in the car.

Your influence is important when your teen first gets their L plates and particularly when they drive alone on P plates. Even teens who don’t usually take risks have a high chance of crashing when they first get their P1s, simply because of inexperience.

• P-plate drivers are about 33 times more likely to crash than L-plate drivers.
• This high risk decreases over the first 6 to 12 months but is still higher at 2 years than the risk for fully licenced drivers.

There are steps parents can take to help reduce the risks when their teens are learner drivers.

Should you teach them to drive?

First, you have to decide whether to teach your teen or pay for a licensed instructor to teach them. Driving lessons can cost around $75 an hour, or less per hour if you buy a package of 3, 5 or 10 lessons. It may be a financial choice or an emotional one. Are you suited to teaching? Do you have a trusting relationship? Do you want them to further learn your habits?

An NRMA survey found parents lacked driving knowledge in crucial areas, according to learner drivers:

• 61% said their parents couldn’t teach them how to parallel park, merge and check blind spots.
• Half said parents did not grasp road rules enough for them to pass exams.
• 30% said their parents taught them something their instructor claimed was wrong, especially indicating at roundabouts.

You may also consider whether your own car is suitable. Is it manual or automatic? Passing a driving test the first time seems to partly depend on whether it’s an automatic or manual car. Some 82% of learners in manual cars pass first time, compared to 74% of learners in automatics. At the same time, manual transmissions are dying out.

Whether or not you or an instructor teaches your child, it will be up to you to supervise and encourage them. They have to complete 120 hours of supervised driving, including 20 hours of driving at night.

Do you know the rules for learner drivers?

There are some specific rules for learners that don’t apply to full licence holders. This table shows you at a glance what you particularly need to know, such as how to display L and P plates  and maximum speed limits:

* Prohibited vehicles – around 17,060 vehicles are banned, including 320 electric vehicles. These are vehicles above 130 kW per tonne and other performance vehicles seen as high risk. Find out what they are here.

Ways to improve learner driving

One way to prepare your learner for P plates (and get bonus driving hours) is to encourage them to take the Safer Drivers Course. This course is for learners under 25 who have completed 50 logbook hours including night driving. Complete these two modules within one month:

• 3-hour group discussion with other L-platers about managing risks on the road
• 2-hour in-vehicle session with a coach and another L-plater to learn practical, safe driving.

They get 20 hours of logbook credit so they need only 100 more hours of supervised driving to progress to P1.

If learner drivers also have 10 structured lessons with a licensed driving instructor, they need only 70 hours (not 120) of supervised driving. This may be worthwhile if you don’t have much time to spend as a supervisor.

Call 13 2213 or find the closest course (within 20kms).

Differences between P1 and P2 plates

Just as there are rules for learners, there are also rules for drivers with P1 and P2 plates. As you might expect P2 platers have more freedom than P1 platers:

• P1 under 25 can carry only 1 passenger under 21 from 11pm-5am, P2 can carry any.
• P1 can tow up to 250 kgs, P2 can tow any weight.
• P1 can drive only 90 kph, P2 can travel at 100 kph.
• P1 can get only 4 demerits in 3 years, P2 can get 7 in 3 years before losing licence.

Ways to reduce the risks for P platers

The best way to protect your P plater is to help them avoid situations that are known to be high risk. These include driving with peer passengers, driving at night or in bad weather or being distracted by mobile phones (use is illegal).

Driving with peers is known to be distracting, which is why P1s are restricted to only one passenger under 21 from 11pm to 5am. Having friends in the car can be dangerous:

• Driving with a car full of peer passengers quadruples the fatal crash risk.
• As the number of peer passengers increases, so does that risk.
• It’s always riskier when carrying male than female peer passengers, especially when the driver is male too.

It’s also best to reduce the number of peer passengers in the car. You can advise your teen not to travel with several peers, especially young men.

Driving in poor weather or at night reduces visibility and increases the distance needed to stop. Your teen needs to understand it’s harder to manoeuvre a vehicle at high speed and, if they do crash, it will be more severe:

• If you travel at 60 kph, you go 20 metres before braking to avoid a hazard.
• You travel 40 metres to stop on a dry road and 55 metres to stop on a wet road.
• At 100 kph a P2 driver takes 90 metres to stop in dry conditions. (A P1 driver can drive only up to 90 kph).

Make sure your teen knows the need to slow down when the roads are wet, and how stopping distance increases dramatically with speed.

Make an agreement on car use

Some parents make a formal agreement with their teens on using the car. This may be the family car or their own car.

Together you can decide on the conditions of that agreement, such as:

• Driving at night, eg, from 6 pm to 10 pm only
• Any driving from 6 am to 11 pm
• One or no passengers aged 16 to 23
• No driving started in heavy rain or fog
• Mobile phone must be in glovebox or in the boot at all times
• Don’t drive unless you have enough petrol or enough money to buy fuel.

An agreement may not work for everyone, but it helps to address some of the high risk situations. The last thing any parent wants is to see their teen seriously injured in a road accident.

Parents pay more for a green slip for L or P platers

Parents whose L or P platers use the family car will pay more for their green slip. The extra cost of having an L or P plater on your policy is $199 to $311, depending on where you live.

The table compares green slip prices with and without L or P platers at 1 March 2024, using an 8-year-old insured Mazda CX5.

Parents have to declare any learner drivers or P platers who drive their vehicle. If not, insurers still have to provide green slip coverage. However in case of a claim, they can ask for the extra premium that should have been paid and in some cases, can charge a penalty.

Use the greenslips.com.au Calculator to work out how much your greenslip will cost with a learner driver.

Also see More on what L and P platers need to know.

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