SGS Closing

brian076

Just heard that SGS will not be conducting any tests from 10th April onwards. Expect increased waiting lists

betterdrive.net

brian076 wrote: »

Just heard that SGS will not be conducting any tests from 10th April onwards. Expect increased waiting lists

Just to confirm this .. I have spoken today to an examiner in Dun Laoghaire SGS test centre and they are finished on the 10th of April.:(

Simon Jester

Waiting lists have doubled since they started cutting back SGS tests.

I reckon they will be above a year within 6 months. Has anyone at the RSA considered that the population of 16 year olds is about 10,000 greater than 17 year olds and there is going to be a huge spike in demand for driving tests or that when the Police stark cracking down on learner permit holders a good portion of the 600,000 are going to apply.

Tis going to be apocalyptic

Devia

I think it will correlate well with the drop in people who can afford to run a car. Ah well, SGS were a pleasure to do my test with. Im sure they will be back on the scene in a few years.

Simon Jester

I think it will correlate well with the drop in people who can afford to run a car. Ah well, SGS were a pleasure to do my test with. Im sure they will be back on the scene in a few years.

I doubt SGS will be back, I think they operated out of NCT centers and they lost that contrack to a spanish company.

Maybe a different private company

Also, regarding the drop in people able to run a car. Driving on a provisional is now more sternly punished than it was, so people who already have cars have an incentive to take a test rather than not bothering (as was the case) and so I think the number of test sitters will remain static, above the no. of tests provided

sunnyside

The only way to prevent long waiting times is to improve the system, do something to end the massive number of no-shows for tests. People who can't drive are getting appointments for tests as you have to apply for a test to renew an expired licence even if you never got around to learning to drive.

Sunjammer

sunnyside wrote: »

The only way to prevent long waiting times is to improve the system, do something to end the massive number of no-shows for tests. People who can't drive are getting appointments for tests as you have to apply for a test to renew an expired licence even if you never got around to learning to drive.

Here's an idea, how about handing the testing itself over to RSA qualified driving instructors (ADIs) so a driving instructor can test his students after a compulsory amount of lessons.. It would make safer drivers cut any expense to the tax payer and I believe it will also have a much higher pass rate as the students will relax more with their instructor and drive better than with an RSA tester, It will also cut waiting times and repeat tests..

jhegarty

Sunjammer wrote: »

Here's an idea, how about handing the testing itself over to RSA qualified driving instructors (ADIs) so a driving instructor can test his students after a compulsory amount of lessons.. It would make safer drivers cut any expense to the tax payer and I believe it will also have a much higher pass rate as the students will relax more with their instructor and drive better than with an RSA tester, It will also cut waiting times and repeat tests..

Because then a person has a financial interest in failing you.

2qk4u

jhegarty wrote: »

Because then a person has a financial interest in failing you.

Just like the RSA does...

Simon Jester

They should work out the average number of no shows a day and tell people who need a quick test to wait in the center for a no show and take their slot.

I doubt it would reduce the waiting times much but I would do it.

Sunjammer

jhegarty wrote: »

Because then a person has a financial interest in failing you.

I don't think that would or could happen for two reasons one, if there is a compulsory number of lessons introduced the ADIs will have much more work anyway and two, if an ADI is going to start to have a high fail rate his reputation will suffer no end, if he has an exceptionally high pass rate he will look suspicious and draw the attention of the governing authority the RSA who could then investigate his operation.

The other advantage to my idea is that an ADI will be able to say to his student look I feel you need more lessons and therefore only carry out a test when a student is at the required standard.. The claim made by lots of driving instructors now like 95% pass rate could then be used more effectively for the pass rate of those having just completed the compulsory amount of lessons therefore making it less appealing to them to encourage extra unnecessary lessons. It's a win win situation.

They could apply extra rules for testing routes and limit students to use only ADIs within a limited radius of their home address etc! The RSA could be giving the job of policing the system!

jhegarty

2qk4u wrote: »

Just like the RSA does...

The RSA loses money on each test. The individual tester has no finial interest in your result.

2qk4u

The RSA will never do this because they will not make money this way.The RSA cant even stick to their own guidelines in relation to regulation of instructors. They are currently 4 monthst behind with ADI ID Cards for qualified ADI's. Their excuse is = the maching is broke and they cant get overtime to sort it out.

brian076

Sunjammer wrote: »

Here's an idea, how about handing the testing itself over to RSA qualified driving instructors (ADIs) so a driving instructor can test his students after a compulsory amount of lessons.. It would make safer drivers cut any expense to the tax payer and I believe it will also have a much higher pass rate as the students will relax more with their instructor and drive better than with an RSA tester, It will also cut waiting times and repeat tests..

I don't think this would work as testing needs to be independent. Someone previously mentioned the RSA make no money from tests, and individual testers have no financial interest in whether an applicant passes or fails.

I think if ADI's were given the responsibility to test their own pupils it would be wide open to abuse, and would also put the instructor in a difficult position, especially if their pupil had spent several hundred euros on lessons, I think they'd be reluctant to fail them no matter how independent they feel they might be.

I think the best way to stop duplicate applications is to increase the fee as was suggested before and penalise no shows by making them pay a higher fee for their next test.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

2qk4u

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Then how is there a tester working in the finglas test centre who was an instructor in driving school in finglas ? the same tester finished a test last week and then went to the carpark and got into a driving school car and drove it out of the test centre, now theres a conflict of interest... this has been reported to the RSA by the aplicant.