Now, his years of experience in dealing with motorists and also analysing the causes of accidents with the serious crash unit investigator are on offer to Wakatipu drivers.
Mr Robb has taken on an AA Driver Training licence to teach learners and also new skills to experienced drivers.
While with the police, Mr Robb often taught fellow officers "how to drive fast and safe", making him familiar with explaining driving skills for every situation.
"I have been in crashes before. I don't get scared with people in cars," he said.
His confidence rubs off on his students. He aims to make driving lessons fun, relaxed and safe for everyone.
Part of the security for both Mr Robb and learners is a second set of brakes installed in the training car. "It often gives people confidence when they are first learning to know there is a backup," he said.
Often, people have one or two lessons before the restricted and full licence tests.
"They think it is better to pay $60 to get the test right than fail and have to resit it," he said.
While many learners are taught by parents, his full course of lessons ranges from tyre checks to three-point turns.
He said there was no such thing as a person who could not learn to drive.
"Driving is a series of skills, or tricks as I call them, which come together in a sequence," he said.
However, he said it was important people were taught well and given steps to manoeuvres such as parallel parking and emergency braking.
For the latter, he often took people out on gravel and had them stop quickly and safely.
"People are often surprised how quickly they can stop."
Immigrants in Queenstown have also been finding Mr Robb's service useful when they convert overseas licences to New Zealand ones.
While not all people need to resit the test, he has a number of students from countries which have different levels of driver testing.
"One of the problems they can face is when they sit the full licence and have to verbalise what hazards they see and how they are going to deal with them," Mr Robb said.
"It is hard to get used to doing and, especially if English is your second language . . . but, usually, I find after an hour with me they're fine."
Mr Robb also offers advanced driving assessments - usually used by companies to assess employee road skills in company cars - and off-road, gravel and ice training.
He also offers defensive driving courses which reduce the waiting time between a restricted licence and a full one.
• For the full list of what AA Driver Training has to offer, contact Mike Robb on 409-8046 or email him at mike@drivepro.co.nz
