Students make controversy around tourist drivers business .

Students make controversy about tourist drivers a business opportunity.

Tuesday, June 7th, 2016

Six Francis Douglas Memorial College students in New Plymouth have developed a ‘T’ plate that tourists drivers can put on their car, similar to an ‘L’ plate for learner drivers.

Having the plates on tourist drivers’ cars would make the public “more aware” of crashes involving foreigners, year 12 student and company “CEO” Patrick Back said.

Prathik Rajasingh, Bailey Wensor, Alex Lightbody, Flyn Wise and Dylan Wheatley and Back came up with the plate idea.

They decided to develop it as part of the Young Enterprise in Schools (YES) programme, which encourages students to develop a business plan and carry it out.

“We were just thinking of what we could make. The conversation of tourists came up so we started trying to figure out a way to solve that or help them out,” Wise said.

While the idea has been suggested before as a way for other drivers to recognise and be careful around tourist drivers on the road, the students decided to take it a step further and develop it into a company.

The plate design the students came up with is the same size as the L plate and has a large black T on a green background.

It features a number of Kiwiana designs such as the 4-Square man, the bumblee-bee toy, a sheep, a tiki and a kiwifruit.

For $16 tourists will get two plates and a pamphlet that has a list of road rules.

“We made it with suction cups so they can take it down when they’re stopped, so they’re not targeted for theft,” Back said.

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