How to use Drive

What is Drive

Developed by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi and ACC, Drive is designed to help people learning how to drive and support people teaching others how to drive.

You’ll be able to learn the road rules and get the skills needed to be a good driver and pass your driver licence tests. With interactive activities and videos, Drive makes learning to drive easy and fun for learners and for people teaching someone to drive.

It’s the official way to learn to drive. And it’s all free.

The 3 stages to getting your licence are learner, restricted and full. As you move from one stage to the next, you’re given a new licence, with different requirements and more responsibilities.

Drive helps get you ready at every stage.

Learner licence

To get your learner licence, you first need to learn the road rules. The Drive website makes learning easy with the interactive Drive Road Code. Work your way through the units and test your learning by completing chapters.

For every 3 chapters you complete, you unlock 1 free practice test. Once you’ve completed all 12 chapters, you’ll get unlimited access.

Some of the tricky words in Drive are underlined. Click on the word to see what it means. There’s also a ‘tough word tester’ to help you learn the trickiest words in the learner test.

You can use the Drive website and do the chapters without an account, but you need to sign up to save your progress and unlock the practice tests.

You can use the Drive website on a computer, tablet or phone. The interactive Drive Road Code is not available on the Drive Go app. Only use the app once you’ve already got your learner licence.

Learner licence information Drive Road Code

Restricted licence

Once you’ve got your learner licence, you can learn to drive in a car with a supervisor sitting beside you.

Drive Go is our free app, which helps you practise the skills needed to become a safe driver and pass your restricted licence test.

There are 44 skills to practise, all with key steps, learning points and video content. Drive Go allows you to track your drives, monitor progress and unlock achievements by completing skills. There are practice tests that you can do with your coach, with tips on what the testing officer will be looking for.

If you don’t have the app, you can still access the skills on the Drive website.

Drive Go is free to download from Google Play or the App Store.

If you’ve already signed up to the Drive website, you can use your same login for the app. If you haven’t used Drive before, then sign up on the app.

Restricted licence information Drive Go app

Full licence

The last stage of your journey is to get your full licence.

Use the Drive website to get ready for your test by watching our video about what happens in the test. The video explains the hazard identification and response tasks that you’ll be asked to do.

Full licence information

Teach someone to drive

If you’re teaching someone to drive, it can be hard to know where to begin. That’s why we created Drive as the official and most reliable resource to guide learner drivers and their support people through the driver licensing system.

If your learner is preparing for their learner licence, get them started with the interactive Drive Road Code to learn the road rules. It’s based on the official New Zealand road code and designed for interactive learning.

Once they have their learner licence, download the Drive Go app. It helps you focus each driving session on specific skills and check progress. The app can be downloaded on both the coach’s and learner’s phone.

The Drive website has hints and tips for being a good coach, information on how to plan a good practice session, and key teaching points for the skills you’ll be working through with your learner. There’s a video library covering the full range of driving skills.

There’s also information on what will be covered in the restricted licence test so you can help your learner prepare.

Information for coaches