Peter Charles Sheppard

Born 20 Dec 1946

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Service number: E39771 AWMM
Also known as: —
Armed force / branch: Army AWMM
Last rank: Captain/Military Service Person New Zealand Army Service Person
War: Sinai, 1982- AWMM
South East Asia, 1959-1974 AWMM

Peter Charles Sheppard — Photographer unknown. Portrait of Peter Sheppard in military uniform. Image kindly provided by service person (November 2022) All Rights Reserved

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Biographical information

Captain (Retired) Peter Sheppard RNZCT BEM FCILT was born on 20 December 1946 in Whanganui. Following in the footsteps of his father, who had served in the Middle East during World War II, Peter chose a military path early in life. Just days after turning 15, he and two other young men boarded a train to Waiouru to join the New Zealand Army as Regular Force Cadets.

After three years in the Cadet system, Peter graduated into the Regular Force as a Lance Corporal Transport Instructor with the Royal New Zealand Army Service Corps, later renamed the Royal New Zealand Corps of Transport (RNZCT). He specialised in driver training, transport safety, and logistics instruction, holding instructional and supervisory roles at Waiouru, Singapore, and Wellington.

During the 1970s he served at the RNZCT Directorate, where his contribution to the Corps was recognised with the award of the British Empire Medal. He later received a commission and continued his career in senior leadership roles within the Army Transport School.

An appointment to the United States 25th Supply and Transport Battalion in Hawai‘i provided valuable insight into American military transport systems. This experience proved significant when New Zealand successfully tendered to provide a driver training team to the 13-nation Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in the Sinai Desert. In 1983–1984, Peter commanded the RNZCT Driver Training Team, establishing systems that continue to support New Zealand’s ongoing contribution.

He retired from the Army in 1987 with the rank of Captain.

Following his military service, Peter has held a number of transport industry senior appointments and chairmanship roles (Profile written for “A Flight to Remember”, an Anzac Day 2026 initiative by Online Cenotaph and Air New Zealand).

1962-64 Regular Force Cadet

1964 - 1969 Instructor Army Basic Recruit Training Waiouru

1968-1970 Transport Cpl HQ Fareast Land Forces Singapore

1971-1974 Transport Instructor Army Transport School Waiouru

1974-1977 Transport NCO NZ Army Transport Directorate Wellington

1977-1979 Transport Squadron Serjeant Major NZ Transport Squadron Singapore

1979-1980 Seconded to National Safety Council Singapore as Driver Education Advisor for the Defensive Driving Programme

1980 - 1983 Transport School Serjeant Major Army Transport School Waiouru

August 1980-December 1980 NZ Exchange Officer with 25 Supply and Transport Battalion US Army Hawaii

1983-1987 Transport Captain Supply and Transport Directorate Wellington.

From having a long association with the driver education environment both within NZ and internationally, Peter is looked upon as one of NZ’s leading professional specialists in driver education and transport safety management. Following six years as the Chief Executive of the AA Driver Education Foundation he moved to the DEF Board. He is a past chairman and board member of Tranzqual Industry Training Organization, a position he held during the organization’s first 15 years of operations. Prior to the AA Driver Education Foundation, Peter spent 15 years with Shell NZ finishing as the Principal Road Transport Consultant. His Shell career followed a 25 year career as a transport officer in the NZ Army. His current responsibilities include honorary CEO position with the NZ Institute of Driver Educators, developing and mentoring driver educators, and advisory roles with various NZ Government Agencies. Peter is the current Technical Director for the nation-wide Street Smart Driving Programme, developed by Peter for young drivers.

Peter’s work in fleet safety management, crash investigation, fuel efficiency and driver education has involved developing new driver education initiatives and incentive programmes for young drivers, co-authoring a “world first” research project (in conjunction with Waikato University) aimed at adolescent drivers frontal lobe development. Peter has presented a range of papers both locally and internationally on adult driver education, driver crash-risk profiling and crash causation. He has arranged several conferences and seminars, involving some of the world’s leading researchers in driver behavior and workplace road safety. His time has also been spent upskilling driver educators, designing driver training interventions, developing programmes for parents to teach their families to drive and providing governance for driver education interventions such as Students Against Dangerous Driving (SADD).

In 2007, Peter was voted NZ Personality of the Year for his work in Road Safety and driver education, receiving the prestigious Neil Nelson award from the NZ Motor Writers Guild.

In 2008, Peter was seconded to the Ministry of Transport as a project manager for the Fleet Commitment Fuel Efficiency Programme and in 2009, Peter was responsible for developing the NZ fuel efficiency programme for it’s 2010 implementation into the NZ vehicle fleet. Peter was also the coach of the 2008 winning TradeMe team in the NZ Energy Wise car rally.

More recent work has been the development and implementation of Electric Vehicle programmes for the introduction of these vehicles into the New Zealand vehicle fleet.

Peter is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and a Past Chairman of the Institute’s Central Section. Peter is also previous member of the NZ Institute of Directors. AWMM

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Peter Charles Sheppard