Kate Hawkesby: Driver licence testing system a money-making rort

COMMENT: I see the restricted driver testing system is back in the news and I'm not surprised - it's a rort.

The whole system appears designed as a money-making exercise. We've had four teenagers go through it, only one passed first time.

Many of their friends failed several times before passing, for a variety of reasons that seemed so trivial it was hard to believe.

It's an endless point of discussion in families with driving age kids, and among the kids themselves. So it's good to see we finally have some statistics to back up what we all already knew.

More people are failing the tests than ever before. Yes more people are sitting them, but the numbers of those failing is on the rise. Fail rates for a restricted licence test in 2007 were 21 per cent out of almost 82,000 people.

By 2017, 43 per cent of the nearly 117,000 people sitting had failed the test.

The test itself was changed in 2012 to make it longer and harder. In theory, that's a good thing, it was flagged as being about safety and that's commendable, no parent wants to see their child or anyone else's for that matter, on the roads if they lack the basic skills.

But latelt it's become more than that. It's become a revenue-gathering exercise. In theory, Vehicle Testing New Zealand will tell you the routes and courses are designed with strict guidelines to be observed by the testers and that this is consistent.

Except here's the reality, it isn't. It's woefully inconsistent.

The kids know which testing stations are more lenient than others, which areas will give higher pass rates, some serial failures have even whittled it down to individual testers themselves - some have a reputation for failing people, others not so much.

Some kids book tests at specific VTNZ stations to increase their chances of passing, others avoid certain regions.

One of our kids drove well on their first test, yet failed, then drove worse on their second test, and passed.

It's a common theme. The testing system is widely regarded as a farce.

Every fail is another re-sit, every re-sit is another fee - it is a captive market and they know it.

By all means don't put ill-prepared drivers on the roads, but perhaps some consistency among VTNZ stations and testing officers would go some way towards restoring faith in the system as being anything other than a money-making exercise.