Whats the least amount of time it can take to get a drivers licence

lostexpectation

So what is this about you having to be on learners permit for 6 months before taking a test, surely if you needed it for job or something and systems delays aside you should be able to learn and take the test in a month?

MrPudding

lostexpectation wrote: »

So what is this about you having to be on learners permit for 6 months before taking a test, surely if you needed it for job or something and systems delays aside you should be able to learn and take the test in a month?

I tihnk the 6 month rule is to stop stuff like this:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=54300083&postcount=5

If a person has a test slot and they are really not ready they will either go, on the off chance they might pass or not show up. Either way it is a waste of a slot that someone ready for the test could have had.

@rain on. I am not picking on you and in your shoes I would have done the same thing.

MrP

lostexpectation

MrPudding wrote: »

I tihnk the 6 month rule is to stop stuff like this:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=54300083&postcount=5

If a person has a test slot and they are really not ready they will either go, on the off chance they might pass or not show up. Either way it is a waste of a slot that someone ready for the test could have had.

@rain on. I am not picking on you and in your shoes I would have done the same thing.

MrP

but really 6 months... half a year?

godtabh

lostexpectation wrote: »

but really 6 months... half a year?

It gives you a chance to learn to drive correctly. You may think you are a great drive but in reality may not. I think its a good idea if it helps promote road safety

Stark

lostexpectation wrote: »

So what is this about you having to be on learners permit for 6 months before taking a test, surely if you needed it for job or something and systems delays aside you should be able to learn and take the test in a month?

It's unreasonable to expect to go from a situation of never having driven before to being able to use your car day in day out for commuting in the space of a month.

Aquitaine

i think this is a good move. there are far too many people on the roads that have very little experience driving. IMO alot of the congestion on the roads is caused by people with little experience - and before you jump to conclusions i am going to be affected by this too.

L1011

Stark wrote: »

It's unreasonable to expect to go from a situation of never having driven before to being able to use your car day in day out for commuting in the space of a month.

Having done this myself and knowing others who have done it - really, it isn't. Unless you're a complete bag of nerves behind the wheel the first time you do it, or just aren't very good, there should be nothing stopping you. The time between my first drive on main roads rather than housing estate roads and first "commute" (to school as it was) was ~2 weeks.

godtabh

MYOB wrote: »

The time between my first drive on main roads rather than housing estate roads and first "commute" (to school as it was) was ~2 weeks.

Where you on your own?

L1011

kearnsr wrote: »

Where you on your own?

Yes. I'm not going to get hauled in to a discussion on the legalities of it, bold boy and all that...

lostexpectation

Stark wrote: »

It's unreasonable to expect to go from a situation of never having driven before to being able to use your car day in day out for commuting in the space of a month.

2 months?

seriously if you, how many hours on the roads would you need, I think people would capable of learning the skill and driving in various conditions in 2 months if he yapplied themselves.

godtabh

lostexpectation wrote: »

2 months?

seriously if you, how many hours on the roads would you need, I think people would capable of learning the skill and driving in various conditions in 2 months if he yapplied themselves.

And this county is full of people who apply themselves?

lostexpectation

well Im not talking about everybody, Im talking about people who want to apply themselves, for the sake of job etc, should it not be based on number of hours driven on the road, I don't know how you'd record that though, you're exposing licensed drivers to 6 months of having to accompany learners as they gain experience on the roads

erm how long does it take to get a commercial HGV license

L1011

You can build up a serious level of hours on the road in 2 months if you so wished.

Wishbone Ash

MYOB wrote: »

You can build up a serious level of hours on the road in 2 months if you so wished.

Take, for example, the past two months and only referring to weather.

No snow.
No frost.
No heavy fog.
No torrential rain.
No heavy flooding.
No excessive sunshine.
No excessive heat.

I can't see how anyone could become experienced in 2 months. After 20 years, I'm still learning!

L1011

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Take, for example, the past two months and only referring to weather.

No snow.
No frost.
No heavy fog.
No torrential rain.
No heavy flooding.
No excessive sunshine.
No excessive heat.

I can't see how anyone could become experienced in 2 months. After 20 years, I'm still learning!

Past two months I've driven in frost, heavy fog and torrential rain - its called going to Donegal frequently Fog/rain on the N15 on Friday night was so bad as to have me going sub 60kmh much of the way through Barnesmore - and that's a road I know very, very well.

If you take that as an example of what you need to drive through to get "experienced", it could easily take 2 years, or more - we don't always get snow or excessive heat, heavy flooding I'll grant is now at least an annual experience though...

lostexpectation

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Take, for example, the past two months and only referring to weather.

No snow.
No frost.
No heavy fog.
No torrential rain.
No heavy flooding.
No excessive sunshine.
No excessive heat.

I can't see how anyone could become experienced in 2 months. After 20 years, I'm still learning!

well you hardly likley to get them in 6 months either, or even 20 years

OTK

lostexpectation wrote: »

So what is this about you having to be on learners permit for 6 months before taking a test, surely if you needed it for job or something and systems delays aside you should be able to learn and take the test in a month?

You can do an intensive residential 1 week course in the UK and sit the test at the end of the week with a guarantee of passing or else more free lessons. My wife did this. It worked. Cost 1500 euro. You can swap a UK licence for an Irish licence. You have to do the UK theory test in advance of the test. Like most European tests, the standard is higher than in Ireland. There are a number of companies offering this service.

seamus

MYOB wrote: »

You can build up a serious level of hours on the road in 2 months if you so wished.

Indeed you could, but even that may not be sufficient. You really need a wide variety of experiences - driving the same route twenty times a day in different weather conditions won't give you sufficient experience. The six months rule means that learners have more opportunity to gain experience on a wide variety of roads and in a wider variety of conditions.

The main flaw with the current testing system is that someone could spend 15 hours in a single week driving a single test route and then pass their test despite have little or no actual driving experience.

As best I understand it, the test routes have been changed now so that they're more "randomised" but a candidate still only has to spend a few hours driving around the locality to become familiar with the roads.

Ideally the routes would be completely randomised, be much longer and include motorway and dual carraigeway - e.g. e.g. start in Tallaght, drive to Citywest and then Blanch and return to Tallaght via the M50.

Our man in Havana

There used to be a few chancers in the UK that were able to schedule a driving test at noon on their 17th birthday. They would get the provisional at 9am, do the test at noon and be back by 2pm to get the full licence.

I don't think it is possible anymore due to theory test requirements etc.

someothername

lostexpectation wrote: »

well you hardly likley to get them in 6 months either, or even 20 years

not trying to have a go at ya here but your attitude sums up what is wrong with the majority ( not all) of people on irish roads at the moment......
they either know it all ..... or suffer from the "it would never happen to me" syndrome

chris85

OP, you cant think that after a month or two on the road you are experienced enough.

The idea of the new rules is to bring in better drivers. As far as i know the rules mean there is no way you can sit the test without having learners permit for six months. Please correct me if Im wrong.

I was driving for six months when I got my licence and I think it was a good period of time.

Mod, I think this should be moved to "Learning to Drive" forum as this is about what happens before you get on the road

Calina

Valid point.

Mods in LTD - hope this isn't too much of a nuisance for you.

L1011

seamus wrote: »

Ideally the routes would be completely randomised, be much longer and include motorway and dual carraigeway - e.g. e.g. start in Tallaght, drive to Citywest and then Blanch and return to Tallaght via the M50.

Good idea, as the current test doesn't realistically cover real world driving (a mid-day test in Tallaght is going to be "45 minutes of crawling down Mayberry Road", for instance), but theres the issue of how long the tests would take, then... or of a tester being thrown out of the car in Blanch

Our man in Havana

Do testers often get thrown out of cars? I have heard some stories of it happening but I always assumed it was an urban myth.

L1011

Bond-007 wrote: »

Do testers often get thrown out of cars? I have heard some stories of it happening but I always assumed it was an urban myth.

I know someone who did it! Was told halfway through the test they'd failed - dunno if this is normal, she pulled over at the next bus stop and turfed him out.

givyjoe81

MYOB wrote: »

Having done this myself and knowing others who have done it - really, it isn't. Unless you're a complete bag of nerves behind the wheel the first time you do it, or just aren't very good, there should be nothing stopping you. The time between my first drive on main roads rather than housing estate roads and first "commute" (to school as it was) was ~2 weeks.

yeah did the same myself about 8 days after the first lesson, cut out a few times on the very first run to work but after that was fine. Everyone's diff but you know yourself if you feel confident enough to take it on, i think 3 months rather than six, especially now, its not in anyone's interest to be acting the clown with test appointments.

lostexpectation

Quiff81 wrote: »

not trying to have a go at ya here but your attitude sums up what is wrong with the majority ( not all) of people on irish roads at the moment......
they either know it all ..... or suffer from the "it would never happen to me" syndrome

you misunderstand where im coming from, personally I don't drive and not in a hurry to learn ( cos im a nervous unconfident procrastinator etc).

I just simple don't think it takes 6 months to learn to drive, half a year!
the amount of time someone could spend gaining experience in 6 months will vary wildly and is hard to assess. its a bit arbitrary, although I know trying to make rules for every type of person is hard.

How about someone designed an advance course where you sought out the different driving conditions, like go to mountains to find some snow etc, or replicate motorway rain driving on unfinished bit of motorway.

I mean this experience you talk of is driving with somebody sitting beside you, its not that much safer or different the day after the 6 months, why not 5 months.

wil

MYOB wrote: »

Past two months I've driven in frost, heavy fog and torrential rain - its called going to Donegal frequently Fog/rain on the N15 on Friday night was so bad as to have me going sub 60kmh much of the way through Barnesmore - and that's a road I know very, very well.

If you take that as an example of what you need to drive through to get "experienced", it could easily take 2 years, or more - we don't always get snow or excessive heat, heavy flooding I'll grant is now at least an annual experience though...

Try 20kph, freezing fog and barely being able to see the foglights of a car 5 metres in front of you, or snow blizzard, compacted snow, black ice, monsoon rain, gravel roads, mountain roads, or 6 hours of continuous motorway. Theres plenty of variety out there and you can still be learning after 20 years.
To say anyone is experienced after 6 months would be nonsense.

I passed my test in 4 weeks, then drove 70 miles round trip every day for a year, covering back roads, regular roads, motorway and rush hour and quiet city driving all in the same day and plenty of different weather conditions. That year of daily driving was where I really began to learn, Passing the test is just to get you safe enough to learn on your own and to get you in the right direction so you wont automatically pick up bad habits.
After passing, I had no big idea that I was suddenly a great driver, thats not the way they teach you in the UK, Some instructors emphasize that you do most of your learning in the first 100,000 miles after passing.

I've quoted this before, but it's so valid and illustrates the vast difference between Irish and UK learning, and obviously the resulting quality of the drivers that its worth highlighting many times.

In the UK "The DSA have stated that it takes most people between 1 and 2 driving lessons with a qualified driving instructor for every year of a person’s life. Latest DSA statistics show that the average person took over 40 lessons and had an extra 16 hours private practice"
And only 2.5% of those who passed, passed without a fault.

There is one specific case in which I do think the 6 month waiting period before applying for the test is unfair. That is foreign drivers outside the EU/EEA etc., eg US, New Zealand etc who are fully licenced and experienced for years, coming to live here then have to go through the learning thing all over again to get a licence. They dont need 6 months of experience.

I suspect the 6 months period was just to avoid a sudden extra rush to test on top of the existing debacle and completely swamp the system.

LostE - It's the procrastinator side that our system has so well served until now.
No one suddenly becomes a good driver, but at least a test pass is a good start and a necessary minmum level standard for solo learning.

L1011

wil wrote: »

Try 20kph, freezing fog and barely being able to see the foglights of a car 5 metres in front of you, or snow blizzard, compacted snow, black ice, monsoon rain, gravel roads, mountain roads, or 6 hours of continuous motorway. Theres plenty of variety out there and you can still be learning after 20 years.
To say anyone is experienced after 6 months would be nonsense.

Theres somewhere you can drive for 6 hours continuously on a motorway in Ireland?

Agree with the rest of your post, the OPs question was about how long it takes to get experienced to the level where you could likely pass a test, theres a whole world of driving beyond what the test is, well, testing - everything you've mentioned pretty much.

Although you shouldn't be driving that close to someone in poor conditions, really

wil

MYOB wrote: »

Theres somewhere you can drive for 6 hours continuously on a motorway in Ireland?

Although you shouldn't be driving that close to someone in poor conditions, really

M50 carpark @2kph

Nah did the London to Glasgow and London Edinburgh trail many times, before cameras became the norm and 85 was the unoffficial speedlimit.

And yeah freezing fog made for the scariest driving I have experienced:eek:
Snow/ice, now that is fun:D except for that black stuff -:eek:-:(

guy_awoke

I think the 6 month thing was actually to make up for the fact that most people in Ireland don't take many driving lessons and the ones who do often find it hard to locate well qualified instructors, which is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. I think that once the official instructor register is up and running and a minimum number of 20 or so logged lessons are required then this requirement should be removed as some people are perfectly willing to do dedicate themselves and do things properly and intensively. There should be nothing stopping someone to take say 30-40 lessons over a 1-2 month period from a competent instructor and be perfectly ready to take the test at the end of that period. As I said, I think this is the situation they would like to see but this being Ireland, the 6 month thing is a compromise until such time as a proper driver training regime comes into existence.