Driving Tests Waiting Lists

esperanza

Can anyone tell me why Irish people have to wait for several months to wait to do a test. Of course, getting an employer or friend to write a letter for you stating that you need your driving licence for work purposes is an easy way of getting around the problem, but dosn't get to the root of it!

Capt'n Midnight

Because there is no real political pressure to change the system.

Insurance companies offer cover to people who drive unaccompanied and who have never done a test for not much less than those with a full license.

Guards don't enforce the rules about valid L plates (too many are disguised , rotated or not on a clear background) / unaccompanied drivers not on thier second provo ( up to 1 in 5 of those on the road ?) / motorways.

The cost of getting lessons and doing the test including time off work is also a factor.

So overall there is no pressure to get a license, like say in Northern Ireland where you can't drive without having someone over 25 with 3years license and are limited to 45mph until a year after the test.

There was an amnesty 20 years ago - the only reason they won't do it again is the EU won't allow it.

The number of testers is about a third the number of people who die on our roads every year. Think about that - during thier career a tester could easily meet a hundred people who are involved in fatal accidents.

jlang

Not sure if it's the answer you're looking for but the reason is that there aren't enough testers to keep up with the record numbers of people applying.

This has been the case for many years and the queues never get depleted. With the country doing well, a greater proportion of people than ever are driving and buying cars (witness the traffic). In addition there's the fact that the kids born at the local peak in the birth rate (about 1980) are now joining the car owning agegroup and also the increasing number of migrant workers in the country, only some of which arrive with driving licenses valid in this country. Yet another issue is that many Irish people who were formerly happy to continue driving indefinitely on their provisional licenses have now been pushed by the introduction of penalty points to actually sit the test rather than only arranging a date just so they can renew their license. Hearsay has it that even still, 20% of test appointments in some centres are no-shows.

As to why there aren't enough facilities/testers to deal with all this - it's a combination of poor planning in the Dept of Transport and its predecessor, a lack of available or suitably educated testers, not helped by the fact that the remuneration offered is insufficient to encourage people to become available or educated enough to take up the vacant positions. They tried to entice retired testers to come back and help work through the backlog but almost none actually did.

esperanza

Thanks for the answers, guys.

Well, I guess it is up to us to put pressure on those who run the country. Well, that's how it should work in a 'democracy'.

I'm sure the government could afford to pay testers more. Maybe FAS could introduce a course to train driving testers, this could get some people off the dole and earning a decent wage; not forgetting, reducing the waiting list for tests.

It's also ridiculous to think that you can get a friend or a parent to give you lessons. As far as I know, formal driving lessons must be given by a qualified instructor elsewhere in Europe. Again, think of all the extra jobs created if this was made obligatory in Ireland.

Now off to write a letter to the politicians ...

(Pity the Green Party is so powerless ...)

Zaph0d

Driver testing is a monopoly service provided by the Department of Transport. For many years it has been run with waiting lists of up to a year. You would think running this service would be straightforward: charge a fee adequate to cover costs, hire enough testers to meet the demand, deliver the service.

I wrote to the minister responsible a number of years ago when I was waiting for a test to complain that the incompetent administration of this division that was under his executive control was costing me a couple of thousand in increased insurance costs. He replied with a letter blaming the delays on industrial relations problems (read: mangement problems) and promised that many efforts were underway to improve the situation. He also organised a test date for me within a fortnight.

Obviously nothing has changed since that time. It is worthwhile writing to the minister and telling him to sort it out ffs.

I think the whole testing operation should be outsourced as they haven't manged to get it to work in the last 20 years.

Capt'n Midnight

jlang wrote:

Not sure if it's the answer you're looking for but the reason is that there aren't enough testers to keep up with the record numbers of people applying.

http://www.dir.ie/interest/interest2.htm article from 1998 it could have been written yesterday, it could have been written prior to the driving license amnsety back in 1979 - NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN OVER 25 YEARS !

esperanza

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

http://www.dir.ie/interest/interest2.htm article from 1998 it could have been written yesterday, it could have been written prior to the driving license amnsety back in 1979 - NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN OVER 25 YEARS !

What was "the driving licence amnesty"? Can you explain in more detail, please?

daymobrew

esperanza wrote:

What was "the driving licence amnesty"? Can you explain in more detail, please?

I think it was mid-late 1960s. My dad got his license that way.
My guess is that there was such a backlog that they gave everyone on a 2nd provisional a full license and practically eliminated the waiting lists.
There may have been other criteria e.g. currently waiting for a test, but I never asked.

japanpaul

How did the Tallaght Centre get a back log of 50 weeks when it only opened a few years ago. When I passed my car test in 2002 the waiting list was already 30 weeks(skipped it though with a letter from my employer).
When I got my bike licence in Japan I only had to wait a week(failed 3 times though ) for each test. I have to wait until the start of next year to do my bike test in Tallaght though. They said my Japanese licence isn't valid in Ireland because I haven't held it long enough before I came home. It's going to cost me an extra E550 to get bike insurance on a provisional.
No matter how much I explain to my girlfriend she can never understand some things that we just accept as 'normal' in Ireland. Surely they just have to hire a few more testers to fix the problem. This problem is country wide.

seamus

japanpaul wrote:

Surely they just have to hire a few more testers to fix the problem. This problem is country wide.

There's probably some union politics in there that if they hire new testers, then existing testers will be "deprived" of their overtime (that's the one that always irritates me - no public servant is entitled to do overtime), and will strike.

They need to carry out the tests 8am - 10pm, 7 days a week, and the busy centres (Tallaght for example) should be capable of carrying out at least 1,500 tests per week. That's around 20 testers (with a couple "spare" for the inevitable sick days), which is not that big a deal. If just two of the Dublin centres could do this, they'd be doing 75,000 tests per year which would clear up the backlog pretty damn quickly

DubTony

seamus wrote:

They need to carry out the tests 8am - 10pm, 7 days a week, and the busy centres (Tallaght for example) should be capable of carrying out at least 1,500 tests per week. That's around 20 testers (with a couple "spare" for the inevitable sick days), which is not that big a deal. If just two of the Dublin centres could do this, they'd be doing 75,000 tests per year which would clear up the backlog pretty damn quickly

Couldn't agree more. But in a country where it takes over 20 years to build half a ring road, where simple infrastructural projects go so far over budget it makes us a laughing stock, where barriers aren't a necessary part of motorway building, where motorways are built where they aren't needed and ...... :mad:

why would it be expected that common sense might prevail to ensure that the people who drive on the roads were qualified?

Tony

parsi

If the Gov was serious about the issue it would be resolved. However they don't seem to care that large numbers of people are driving on provisionals. I did it myself and I did it because it suited me.

We should adopt a European model of regulated instruction and not allow unaccompanied drivers. The insurance companies need to row-in on this as well - lets face it they encourage it by making it possible for provisional drivers to get insurance.

The test situation is only the outward manifestation of a problem which no-one has the will to resolve because to be honest it keeps the country mobile. If there was a clampdown with all the provo drivers going off the roads then all of a sudden our public transport system would be exposed as the shambles it is.