New regulations have caused a rush of driving test applications. Up to 50,000 have now joined the waiting list and the average waiting time is now six months. BERNA COX reports
Are you one of the 50,000 or so wannabe fully licensed drivers who have bombarded the Driver Testing Centre in Ballina, Co Mayo, with an application to "do the test"?
If you are, relax - you have plenty of time to prepare. The average waiting time has gone from 10 weeks to six months and is set to climb even further. And don't think you can get around this with an urgent letter from your employer. That heretofore stroke-pulling "get out of jail" card now has less poke.
Traditionally, a statement from an employer to the effect that you absolutely must get an early test date because your livelihood depended on it, helped to accelerate the testing process. The testing centre depended largely on a cancellation rate, normally in the region of 10 per cent, to facilitate these urgent applications. Now, there are virtually no cancellations and, of course, a big increase in "urgent" applications.
"We will still do our best," says Declan Naughton, assistant principal officer at the Ballina centre, but he declines to even "guesstimate" the expected waiting time for urgent tests. Last year, they managed to accommodate urgent cases in about three weeks, but that figure has now passed into the realm of nostalgia.
What would help the process, says Naughton, would be a little civic-mindedness from applicants - it helps enormously if candidates notify the centre in advance if they're unable to avail of their test date. Last year, there were 17,000 "no shows". A lot of people, it seems, simply don't turn up on the day.
So, now that you face a wait of about six months, what are your chances of success? According to the figures for 2001, 52.8 per cent of applicants passed first time; 58.7 per cent of second-time and higher candidates passed. The overall pass rate for that year was 55.4 per cent - divided between the sexes the figures were 57 per cent for men and 53.6 per cent for women.
There are, however, pockets of the country where the figures enter the chicane. At the end of 2001, Shannon was first past the chequered flag with a pass rate of 70.4 per cent. Straggling behind and lapped by the others was the Wicklow centre, recording the poorest pass rate at 47.2 per cent.
Both men and women did best in Shannon - 70.5 per cent and 70.3 per cent respectively. Kilkenny was a black spot for women with a pass rate of 43.9 per cent and there was a tie between Wexford and Wicklow for the lowest rate of male passes - 48.5 per cent each.
John Donnelly, chairperson of the Limerick Driving Instructor's Association which includes members from the Shannon area, puts the success rate in the west down to the quality of the instruction. However, he says, we really need a government regulated scheme for standardised instruction. We remain the only state in the EU not to regulate our instructors.
Whatever about the instructors, what about the testers? On the day of your test, your passenger becomes the most important person in your life. But how are they selected and trained?
Wannabe testers must hold a full, clean driving licence, pass a series of psychometric tests, pass a non-standard driving test designed and administered by Department of Transport and, finally, pass the interview process.
After that, training is ongoing, according to Naughton. A supervisor sits in with a tester about once a month and, if it's felt that a tester needs more training, it's provided.
Last year, the 116 testers in the country underwent a two-week refresher session including instruction from a customer care specialist to help to polish "people skills" and maybe kill the traditional image of the lonely, silent tester.
Staff in Ballina, says Naughton, do hear anecdotal stories of unfairness and seemingly arbitrary decisions by testers but, he contends, on investigation they rarely hold water.
Stories of test failure because of defective cars don't cut any ice with him. "Candidates are advised in advance that cars must be roadworthy," he says. A tester will check essentials before embarking on the test and, if faults would compromise safety, the test will not proceed and no result is recorded. If a fault occurs during the test, the process will be abandoned and, again, no result recorded. If a test is abandoned for any reason outside the candidate's control - for instance, an accident on the route - another test will be arranged free of charge.
So, if you want to increase your chances of passing, maybe you should consider taking the test in the high pass areas. But be prepared to wait - at January 6th Shannon's waiting time was 27 weeks. And, no, there's not even a whiff of another 1979-style amnesty. Happy motoring!