Ele Ludemann: Pay $ or pay with delay

The previous government removed fees for people re-sitting their driving licence test without doing anything to increase the supply of testers.

The inevitable happened – people rebooked multiple times, some didn’t show up and the wait to sit a test increased by months.

The coalition government is fixing that:

The Government is rolling out changes to the driver licencing system to tackle the unacceptable wait times facing New Zealanders trying to sit their driver licence tests across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.

“Since the previous government’s decision last year to remove re-sit fees for theory and practical tests, demand for driver licence test bookings have increased significantly, as have test failure rates and no-shows. This has led to unacceptable delays for Kiwis trying to book a test for their driver licence.

“Demand for overseas driver licence conversions has also grown significantly, adding to the pressure on the driver licence test system. This, coupled with unlimited free re-sits, has meant people applying to sit their driver licence tests have been waiting more than 60 days in parts of the country, which is totally unacceptable. This is up from an average wait time of 13 days in the three months prior to the previous government’s changes.

A couple of weeks wait to sit a test is reasonable, three months is not.

From 8 July, the Government is implementing the following changes to reduce the unacceptable driver licence wait times facing New Zealanders:

• Class 1 driver licence test applicants sitting a theory or practical test will be eligible for one free re-sit and will be required to pay for any additional test following this.
• Overseas driver licence conversions will no longer be eligible for free re-sits and, if they fail the first test, will be required to pay for any additional test.

“Our Government has sought to take a balanced approach to this issue by limiting the number of free re-sits to get these wait times under control. These changes will reduce no-shows and incentivise driver licence applicants to prepare and pass their tests, reducing the driver licence backlog, while continuing to ensure that Class 1 applicants remain eligible for a free re-sit. . .

Limiting free re-sits should reduce no-shows and will provide a greater incentive for people to prepare for and pass their tests without multiple attempts.

“Alongside these changes, NZTA is implementing operational measures to reduce wait times by recruiting more Driver Testing Officers (DTOs), expanding the available hours for theory and practical driving tests, and increasing the number of courses to train up DTOs. Text alerts have also been introduced to remind people of their driving test and ensure they turn up on the day. . .

No limit for multiple re-sits meant all applicants were paying with delays to sit their tests.

It’s far better to have people who fail multiple attempts to pay for re-sits than for everyone to pay with delays.

Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.