About keys2drive: keys to a safer future

A learner driver's risk of being harmed in a crash increases, on average, 20 to 30 times as soon as they gain their provisional driver's licence.

But before that, while on their L's, they are in the safest category of road users; L platers are harmed less than any other group.

In under an hour – about the time it takes to sit and pass a provisional licence test - learner drivers move from being statistically the safest drivers on the road to the most at risk.

A new learning experience

Newly licensed drivers are vulnerable for two main reasons:

1. While learning they are supported, guided and protected from harm by their supervisors and instructors. In the process, they are often protected from a full sense of their own responsibility.

2. After they are licensed, learner drivers face a range of situations they have never experienced. Alone with little training in how to adapt to new difficulties.

Our challenge is to provide a learning experience that is more real, more directly meaningful to each new driver, more attuned to the reality of licensed driving.

The challenge is also to provide a more thorough learning experience. keys2drive encourages learning that is:  

• Longer - providing more hours behind the wheel
• Wider - experiencing a greater variety of driving challenges, in all conditions
• Deeper - gaining a greater understanding of the psychological, emotional and mental challenges involved, and the true responsibility that each driver holds

A new generation of safer drivers

keys2drive empowers young Australians to be safe in cars. keys2drive does not replace existing driver training. Nor does it focus on physical driving skills. Instead, keys2drive complements other learning programs.

We do this by advising new drivers how best to approach the learning process. And research tells us that the best way for young drivers to learn is to take control of their own learning.

keys2drive offers encouragement and support toward this aim, and advice on how to do it safely. For a fuller explanation of this philosophy, see keys2drive learning approach.

Working together: mid-term goals for long-term safety

Learner drivers, parents/supervisors, and driving instructors are working together toward the goal of zero harm in the first six months of P plate driving. It is a goal designed to build a foundation for a life of safe driving.

Achieving this goal together rests upon three central initiatives:

1. The free lesson – keys2drive provides a free lesson, introducing our innovative approach, for learner drivers in Australia.

2. Accredited driving instructors – keys2drive is a professional development and accreditation program for the driving instruction industry. More and more instructors will gain access to these techniques.

3. Online support –The keys2drive website is a rich central portal of information, advice, activities and games. It's designed to guide learner drivers, their supervisors and driving instructors through the learning experience.

Each part will be closely evaluated for effectiveness and improved over the coming years. And each part supports the other in an integrated and accountable program, guided by the keys2drive philosophy and streamlined toward a common aim: a safer driving future for all.

For information on the learning theory which guides keys2drive
keys2drive learning approach
Code of Practice for driving instructors