~But Are Highly Recommended..

While you will need plenty of driving experience to get your P plates in NSW, there is no legal requirement to get professional driving instruction. The requirements to get your P1 licence in NSW include the following:

• You must have a New South Wales address
• You must be able to prove your identity
• You must be a valid learner’s licence holder, and have held your learner’s licence for 12 months, you must log at least 120 hours of supervised driving including 20 hours of night driving (if under the age of 25)
• You must pass the Hazard Perception Test (HPT), eyesight test, and drive test, and pay all applicable fees

Learner drivers who are looking to get more hours in their log books often choose to get driving lessons driving school to help them boost their driving skills – and their log book hours.

Completing the safer Driver Course and three for one bonus hours can help you reach the 120 hours faster. If you are 25 or over, you do not have to log driving hours.

Professional driving instruction is the best way to learn about efficient driving habits, road rules, and tips that can help you pass your drive test in NSW on the first go – and get your licence right away.

While professional driving lessons are not required by law for new drivers in NSW, they are an essential part of driver education. Driving with family and friends, or any other supervised driver is a good way to get started – but if you don’t take lessons from a professional driving instructor, you may end up with gaps in your knowledge that could lead to confusion, or even failing drive test.

As a driver, you should know your suitable speed according to road conditions and traffic situations also position to keep a safe distance from vehicles in front and to the sides of your vehicle. This is called your crash avoidance space.

Many of the crashes that happen each day in Australia could be avoided if every driver kept their crash avoidance space.

To maintain crash avoidance space to the front of your vehicle, you need to take into account two key factors – reaction time and response time:

• Reaction time is the time a driver needs to see and understand a situation, decide on a response, and then start to take action. A driver who is fit and alert and not affected by alcohol, drugs or fatigue, needs about to react to a hazard                                                                                                     
• Response time is the time a driver needs to take action. Most people need at least 1.5 seconds to respond, for example, to brake.

In good conditions, people need a 3-second crash avoidance space (often called the 3-second gap) to react and respond to a situation safely and avoid a crash.