VicRoads and the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) conduct a series of telephone surveys of learner permit holders and newly-licensed drivers to monitor the accumulation of supervised driving experience by Victorian learner permit holders. Previous surveys were conducted in 1999, 2000 and 2004. The 2005 survey was performed on behalf of TAC by a specialist market research firm. ARRB Group was commissioned by TAC to conduct a preliminary analysis of the data and then by VicRoads to complete the analysis and report on changes in the amount and variety of experience accumulated by learner permit holders compared with previous surveys. A total of 1324 drivers from three stages of the learner permit period were interviewed about their supervised driving practice over the last week and professional lessons over the last four weeks. In addition, 220 newly licensed drivers were interviewed about lessons and practice in the final weeks before passing the probationary licence test (the fourth stage of the learner permit period). Information about driving in each stage was combined to generate estimates of the total amount of supervised driving experience accumulated by learners while holding a learner permit, based entirely on reports of driving during April-June 2005. Respondents were also asked about the variety of driving conditions experienced and about their experience of a variety of programs promoting the accumulation of at least 120 hours supervised driving experience by all learners before obtaining a probationary licence. The results of the survey revealed that the average amount of experience accumulated by learner permit holders before graduating to a probationary licence has increased by 11.1 per cent from 94.1 hours in 2004 to 104.5 hours in 2005. (a)
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