"It's going to make them pull their socks up. It's saying, you're not ready, go away and learn. You've got to be cruel to be kind sometimes," he said.
Mr Winter said too many drivers were trying to rush the learning process, a trend that was resulting in accidents. He said many pupils were not prepared to put in the long hours to become truly competent drivers.
But the new testing scheme would change that, requiring around 120 hours of driving time to achieve competence.
Young drivers who have completed around 120 hours of supervised driving practice may be up to 40 per cent less likely to crash than young drivers who had completed around 50 hours once they start driving solo.
"What the new test will do is you'll find there will be a higher fail rate. I think it's going to be more, it's going to go up," Mr Winter said.
" ... Now you'll find those who were just scraping through the test before, now they won't get through. It's got to be a good thing, it's going to teach them more."
April McRae, of April's Driving School, agreed the new tests would be of benefit to Bay of Plenty motorists, even if the fail rate did increase.
"It's a harder test, it's a longer test, and the route is a harder route. [But] it's a good thing - it should be producing better drivers at the end of the day," she said.
BOP Driving School instructor Jeroen van der Beek said the new tests would create an improved calibre of driver.
The NZTA expects the fail rate to get worse in the early days of the new test before climbing back to normal rates over time as candidates acquire more practice.
"The standard is increasing to make them a more competent driver. We just want the standard to be right," Mr van der Beek said.
Te Puke and Waihi are two of 35 towns nationally no longer being offered by the Transport Agency as testing locations.
Restricted test
The restricted driver licence test has been developed to assess the higher skill levels expected of today's more experienced licence applicants.
The 60-minute test is longer than the previous test and includes 45 minutes of drive time. It includes: Conducting a pre-drive vehicle safety check, a 45-minute practical drive, and feedback to the applicant on their performance at the end of the test.
The on-road practical test is made up of two stages:
Stage 1 takes 10 minutes and is a set of relatively simple driving tasks conducted in a less-complex traffic environment.
Stage 2 takes 35 minutes and is designed to assess the applicant's ability to perform more-challenging tasks in moderately challenging environments.
Full test
The full licence test time has reduced to 30 minutes which includes 20 minutes of driving.
Test applicants will be expected to be able to apply appropriate hazard and detection responses to all assessable tasks without explanation of what is required by the testing officer.
- NZTA and APNZ