diff --git a/test-driver b/test-driver
index 3d40130effaf90465cf8ba888e1e194419ea2f1d..25e2854d5a57995684a903e2e2880a4ffa110e14 100755
--- a/test-driver
+++ b/test-driver
@@ -89,6 +89,8 @@ Commands:
   init       Initialize the test environment (turn up VMs, set up
              credentials, run the main float playbook)
 
+  wait-ready Wait until the VMs are ready (part of "init")
+
   cleanup    Cleanup the test environment (turn down VMs, etc)
 
   run        Run the test suite, using the playbooks specified by
@@ -122,6 +124,11 @@ case "$cmd" in
         run_init
         ;;
 
+    wait-ready)
+        wait_for_vms \
+            || die "could not reach the VMs with Ansible"
+        ;;
+
     cleanup)
         save_logs logs
         run_cleanup