James Thornton (second from left) and his apprentices, who use a mobile phone app to help them navigate across Sydney. Credit:Peter Rae Plumber James Thornton, 27, said the ban would be disastrous for businesses like his, where the operating system and work-flow was managed through a mobile phone application that every employee was required to use. Seven of his nine employees at his business, TPS Plumbing, were P-platers and used the app's inbuilt navigation system to direct them to as many as 30 plumbing jobs across Sydney each day. "Everything is reliant on our phones, because that is our system. This device tracks everyone," Mr Thornton said. "It [the ban] is going to affect my business dramatically." Mr Thornton said his employees, who were at various stages of their plumbing apprenticeships, were required to remain logged into the application throughout the day as it tracked their location, gave them directions to their next job, used an automated SMS system to inform clients when they were on their way and advised them when a job was postponed or cancelled.

"If we can fit another job in somewhere, I can see where they are ... and we'll be able to squeeze another job in. It's going to affect me big time." He said each of his employees was equipped with iPhones, which they either had mounted in their vehicles or used with a hands-free system. Currently, only drivers on their P1 licences or "red Ps" are prohibited from using phones at all while driving, while those who have progressed to their P2 licences, or "Green Ps", are able to use their phones for calls and audio only, providing it is securely mounted or a hands-free device is used. But while TomToms and other navigation devices will be permitted, P-platers will be barred from using their mobile phones for the same purpose and under the same conditions - namely, that the device is securely mounted inside the vehicle - to access GPS directions.

Instead, they must pull over and park out of the line of traffic before they can use their phones. Bernard Carlon, executive director of the NSW Centre for Road Safety, said the ban was justified because phones posed a "higher risk for inexperienced drivers than a purpose-built GPS as there is the temptation to use it for other functions". "The risk of being involved in a fatal or injury crash goes up by at least eight times for new P-plate drivers." Mr Carlon advised young drivers to plan their route before getting in a car, or to ask a passenger to help with directions.

Loading So far this year in NSW, 21 young people have died in crashes involving P-plate drivers. Between 2010 and 2014, drivers on their Green Ps, who comprise 5 per cent of all NSW drivers, accounted for about 9 per cent of all mobile phone offences, according to the NSW Centre for Road Safety.