West Coast Driver Services

More About Our Instructor

Our instructor is Ms Shelley Evans. She has classes 1, 2, 4 and 5, endorsements D, F, R, T, W and V. She is qualified to teach AA Defensive Driving Courses, and is NZQA, NZTA and M ITO registered.

Shelley has over 10 years of experience as an instructor, and before that she was a truck driver for over 20 years, driving all over New Zealand. She has accreditation by the New Zealand Transport Agency to teach all truck classes, logbook modules, forklifts, dangerous goods, and tracks and rollers endorsements. The NZTA has rigorous criteria that requires instructors to have two to five years' work experience in each of the driving classes that they teach. This makes her one of the most qualified driving instructors on the West Coast.

Over 30 years ago, Shelley became the first female truck driver on the West Coast and possibly the entire country. She grew up in Otira, where she began work for the Ministry of Works, hauling cart gravel and slip material in a J4 Bedford. She went on to be a road construction foreperson, teaching heavy machinery and driver education at Tai Poutini Polytechnic, and drive milk tankers around Canterbury. This entailed negotiating the infamous "White Knuckle Highway" of Shenandoah Hill on the Hamner Springs to Picton run. She became well known for her scrupulous driving and "direct" approach with fellow drivers. As an instructor and senior driver, safety is her number one priority.