Student drives 500km to sit full driver licence due to long wait times locally

People are driving long distances to circumvent long wait lists for driver's licences. Photo / NZME

By RNZ

A driving instructor says one of his students drove 500 kilometres to sit his full licence test because long wait times meant there were no spots available nearby for several months.

Alistair McGregor has been running the Counties Driving School for 20 years in Auckland and said the man drove six hours from Pukekohe to Dannevirke for the test.

Earlier this year, the Government announced it was scrapping unlimited free re-sits for driving tests in a bid to cull long wait times.

Under the new rules, which came into effect in July, only a single free re-sit is allowed for Class 1 theory and practical tests, while those converting their overseas licence are no longer eligible for re-sits.

But McGregor said the changes were yet to make any difference to the wait times.

“As far as I can see, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of change at the moment.

“Currently bookings are out to as far as October, and students who are trying to make those bookings in October often find that there’s no available slots even at that distance.

“And I imagine it would take some months before a noticeable change starts to occur,” he said.

McGregor expected testing stations to get busier closer to Christmas.

“There’s going to be an increased demand for tests as students find themselves with more time available, when they have exam leave, etc.

“Many want to have their licence before Christmas for obvious reasons. It gives them freedom during the holiday period and enables them also to find part-time work. So there’s going to be another sort of squeeze on the system as we come through the Christmas holiday period.”

He said testing stations were doing their best to cope with the increasing demand.

Ted Jarvis runs the Silverfern Motorsport Charitable Trust in West Auckland. The trust has been helping youth offenders and people from low socio-economic backgrounds sit their driving tests since 2010.

“Recently a person who did a ram raid was referred to us. Once he actually got a licence the change of attitude was brilliant, and that person suddenly actually owned something - we made a difference.”

He said there was a narrow window of opportunity to help his clients get back on track and long wait times for tests added to the challenge.

“There is a concern, especially with youth offenders, the court dates can drag on, and then ... sometimes those youth justice people can be in the system from like nine to 12 months and they’re missing out on getting their licences and things.”

NZ Transport Agency figures from July showed Auckland’s north and west regions faced the longest wait times in the country - an average of 94 days for a restricted test and 85 days for a full licence test.

Jarvis said the unlimited free re-sits had encouraged many people to abuse the system.

“There was quite a number of people who just don’t don’t front up to consider any day of the testing station and they’ll call out names and people just don’t front up. We saw a situation where a person turned up, didn’t like the testing office and so they just walked out.”

Nearly 9000 people across New Zealand re-sat their full licence test in July - double the number for the same period in 2023.

Just over 6000 did their restricted licence test again, compared to about 5000 last year.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown said he had been working closely with NZTA to alleviate the backlog of test applications.

He said NZTA had increased overtime for driver testing officers, so an additional 10,000 practical tests had been completed since March.

Twenty-five new testing officers had been also been brought in since December 2023, and the Government had introduced text reminders to prevent no-shows.