Automobile Association continues to serve rural areas after 120 years

Therese Symons processes Ella Davis for her learner licence. Photo / Dave Murdoch

It was 1903 when Auckland eye surgeon Dr George de Clive-Lowe gathered a handful of driving enthusiasts together to start an automobile club.

Last month the Automobile Association celebrated 120 years in New Zealand.

The association currently serves 1.8 million customers, assisting them in the safe use of our roads and is very much at the forefront for promoting safe, responsible driving.

Since its inception, the AA has run a school road safety programme and other campaigns, and there are centres in major towns and cities offering everything to help the motorist from licensing to insurance.

Beyond those urban centres, the smaller towns and rural areas are serviced by three Mobile Units, one covering the North Island north of Taupō, another the North Island South of Taupō and the other, all of the South Island.

Therese Symons is one of the mobile agents, covering the southern North Island.

She visited Dannevirke earlier this month as part of her regular routine of coming to the Tararua District on the first Thursday and third Monday of the month.

Based at the Hearing Association rooms in McPhee Street, she works 9am to 5pm to meet the needs of locals, mostly for licence renewals and new applications.

These may be restricted licences for new drivers, full licences, specialist licences and even IRD registrations - but not the physical driving test.

Those who use the service remark upon Therese’s patience, politeness, humour and determination, calling it top service.

She says she appreciates people are nervous about the visit but she does her best to make them relax.

Therese apologises if all customer’s details are not all present and she cannot issue a licence but she says they need a correct licence.

Therese Symons says working with people like Nikki Martin (left) makes her life easier. Photo / Dave Murdoch

She thoroughly enjoys her nomadic life five days on the road and says working with people like Nikki Martin, who shares the facility and teaches the learner licence theory, makes her life so much easier.

Find out more about the association’s history in the AA’s Directions magazine https://www.aa.co.nz/membership/aa-directions/aa-directions-autumn-2023/.