Productivity in the DOT

D'Peoples Voice

Have you received your credit card size driving licence?

Why is it, a company in the private sector like MBNA can take two weeks to run a credit check and send out my credit card, but it takes the civil service over three years to send out my credit card size driving licence!:mad:

Why didn't the government outsource this work:(

Nuttzz

there is a credit card size driving licence now??

D'Peoples Voice

Nuttzz wrote:

there is a credit card size driving licence now??

http://www.rte.ie/news2/2002/1231/driving.html

However, there have been a number of complaints about the size of the licence and the fact that it is too big to fit in the average purse or wallet.

The Department of Transport says a credit card style licence is to be introduced in the middle of next year.

That article is dated December 31 2002!

dmeehan

D'Peoples Voice wrote:

Have you received your credit card size driving licence?

Why is it, a company in the private sector like MBNA can take two weeks to run a credit check and send out my credit card, but it takes the civil service over three years to send out my credit card size driving licence!:mad:

Why didn't the government outsource this work:(

so have you applied for one of these licences?? :rolleyes:

seamus

dmeehan wrote:

so have you applied for one of these licences?? :rolleyes:

His point is that they don't exist.

Plastic cards have been in use for many years now, and the DOE have everyone's picture. The longest part should be designing the card, and that should take no more than 6 months, as it has to fit a european standard format.

There are only just over 1 million drivers in this country. It wouldn't take all that long to issue us all with new licences. It would be even quicker if it was done on an application and expiration basis (i.e. you only send out licences to people who've asked for them or whose licences have expired, not to everyone).

It's another example of paying lip service to the public and then sitting on their hands.

They're probably demanding more money to operate them compootar tings dat do dem licences.

D'Peoples Voice

dmeehan wrote:

so have you applied for one of these licences?? :rolleyes:

funny you should say that,
but I did check the DOT website,
to see how someone would go about applying for a standard driving licence.
While I didn't kill myself looking, I couldn't find any online application form nor any form that I can download!
I wonder, in this day and age, do you still have to get them in the garda station:eek:

Pls tell me these civil servants did not get their increase under benchmarking:o

The fact that a large part of the DOT website seems to be devoted to Press Releases says it all to me!

Alun

http://www.oasis.gov.ie/transport/motoring/full_driving_licence.html#id3147444

antoinolachtnai

I don't think they will accept the printed-out driving licence application form. (Which makes you wonder why they put it up on the website.)

The logistics of changing the driver's licence format are a little trickier than you might anticipate. A new printing system would have to be rolled out in all parts of the country at once, to all the local authorities. MBNA has a centralized bureau for issuing the cards, the DoT doesn't. (Now, you and I may feel that this is a function that could be easily centralized, and it is, but there is a lot more to the issue when you start dealing with it at the local level.)

parsi

I think you might find that this is another thing that Mini Brennan announced without actually doing anything about. With the fiasco of PPARS and the issues with the new passport system I'm sure we would have heard if there was any sort of IT project that related to credit-card licences.

My money is that it was announced as a people pleaser and then he just didn't bother doing anything.

NewDubliner

Give them a chance, they haven't finished updating the 'Rules of the Road', last revised in 1997 & they're probably all packing for a move down the country.

Victor

antoinolachtnai wrote:

I don't think they will accept the printed-out driving licence application form. (Which makes you wonder why they put it up on the website.)

Oddly there's only poorly photocopied versions in my local Garda station.

antoinolachtnai

The reason appears to be that they have a sticky-label section on the back to make it easy to apply the signature to the driving licence. I guess it depends on the local authority too - it's up to each authority what they will and won't accept.

I think it is really shameful in this day and age that a professional police force is supposed to look after trivia like passport and licence forms. It's easy to criticize the gardai. But they are expected to do a lot of things that really should be handled elsewhere in the civil service.

Capt'n Midnight

seamus wrote:

There are only just over 1 million drivers in this country.

including or excluding provisional licensee's ?

Anyone got stats, because that sounds far too low.

seamus

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

including or excluding provisional licensee's ?

Anyone got stats, because that sounds far too low.

Sorry, my bad. I was thinking of registered vehicles, though I'm sure that figure is also a little higher. (edit: seems to be pushing 2 million at this stage).

There can be at most around 2.5 million drivers, and that's assuming that everyone between the ages of 19 and 65 has a driving licence. Still not all that many, we *are* a very sparsely populated country, relatively speaking.

Capt'n Midnight

IIRC there are something like 350,000-400,000 on provisional licenses which would have meant 1 in 3 drivers !

Do people on their second provisionals have similar to average pass rates ?
If so then nearly half of them will have the uniquely Irish experiance of being legally allowed to drive home unaccompanied dspite failing a test to determine if they are safe to do so.

D'Peoples Voice

antoinolachtnai wrote:

The logistics of changing the driver's licence format are a little trickier than you might anticipate. A new printing system would have to be rolled out in all parts of the country at once, to all the local authorities. MBNA has a centralized bureau for issuing the cards, the DoT doesn't. (Now, you and I may feel that this is a function that could be easily centralized, and it is, but there is a lot more to the issue when you start dealing with it at the local level.)

I wonder how AIB and Ulster Bank who have branches around the country manage to issue ATM cards:eek:
Oh that's right, they're not the public service!

parsi

D'Peoples Voice wrote:

I wonder how AIB and Ulster Bank who have branches around the country manage to issue ATM cards:eek:
Oh that's right, they're not the public service!

Are these the same banks who take 6 days to give you value for cheques you lodge ? Are these the same banks whose internet banking services are woefully behind what other european banks offer ?

Irish banks are not a good choice when trying to back up an argument about private-sector efficiency ;-)

Do Dublin Bus still issue photo-id cards that are credit-card sized ?

markpb

antoinolachtnai wrote:

I think it is really shameful in this day and age that a professional police force is supposed to look after trivia like passport and licence forms. It's easy to criticize the gardai. But they are expected to do a lot of things that really should be handled elsewhere in the civil service.

Actually, this still makes a small amount of sense. Passports and driving licenses are legal proofs of identification. In smaller towns and villages where the gardai know most people living there, they're both well placed and trusted to certify that the person applying for the ID is actually the person they say they are.

Of course this falls down in say Dublin, Cork, Limerick, etc where the gardai in a community won't know anyone living there.

antoinolachtnai wrote:

The logistics of changing the driver's licence format are a little trickier than you might anticipate. A new printing system would have to be rolled out in all parts of the country at once, to all the local authorities. MBNA has a centralized bureau for issuing the cards, the DoT doesn't. (Now, you and I may feel that this is a function that could be easily centralized, and it is, but there is a lot more to the issue when you start dealing with it at the local level.)

That's exactly the problem. The entire system (technology and process) needs to be changed and centralised but the county councils will object most strenouosly to this because its a rather nice cash cow for them. Once again local politics defeats common sense and greater good.

Victor

markpb wrote:

The entire system (technology and process) needs to be changed and centralised but the county councils will object most strenouosly to this because its a rather nice cash cow for them.

Hardly, seeing as the only do it on an agency basis for hte department anyway.