Six week wait to get licences renewed irks taxi and bus drivers

Monday, 22 July 2019

Between 2018 and early 2021, the number of people holding small passenger small passenger service vehicle licences went from about 17,600 to 29,905.

Some taxi and bus drivers are unable to work because of long waits for passenger licences as the NZ Transport Agency struggles with processing times.

Transport industry representatives said drivers were waiting months to have P endorsements on their licences issued or renewed, which was unacceptable during an acute driver shortage and could lead to cancellation of services.

Bus and Coach Association chief executive Barry Kidd said at a conservative estimate 20 to 30 Auckland bus drivers were off the road as a result of the licensing problem and he was aware of one forced to go on the dole.

'He'd run out of leave and is now on the unemployment benefit.

**READ MORE:

Ritchies Coachlines says it may have to consider cancelling some services if prolonged waits for driver licences are not resolved.

* Train services canned and bus cancellations to continue amid 'unprecedented' driver shortage

* Uber changes pricing in new trial for Auckland drivers

* 'Double-dipping taxi drivers' working 100 hours a week', federation claims

* Is it still safe to get a taxi when you're drunk and a woman?**

An Auckland Uber driver has waited eight weeks to find out if he can successfully challenge NZTA moves to decline his passenger licence because of three speeding tickets.

Some companies found newly qualified drivers other work to do while they waited for their passenger licences to come through, but Kidd said that after two or three months they were increasingly frustrated.

Last year P licences were issued in a week or two, he said, but turnaround times lengthened last month after the agency's processing centre had to shift out of a Palmerston North building deemed earthquake-prone.

Ritchies Coachlines director operations Andrew Ritchie said the company had not yet had to cancel any services 'but we're getting close to it.'

The company had 10 to 15 drivers unable to work in Auckland as a result of the licensing delays.

'In Timaru and Oamaru there's about eight or nine, that doesn't seem a large amount but in a little depot it's a major issue.'

Ritchie said they were reminding drivers to apply for licences renewals at least six weeks before they were due to expire, and he is dubious of claims on the Transport Agency website that the processing time for a standard P licence application with all the necessary documentation was 25 working days.

'There's no way that's happening.'

Taxi Federation executive director John Hart said he had reports of drivers unable to work because their licences had expired before renewals came through.

'[NZTA] is just way behind and people are hurting because of that.'

An Uber driver who contacted Stuff has waited eight weeks for news of his licence renewal application which was complicated by three speeding tickets.

He said the hardest part was not knowing whether he should simply start looking for another job, and he has filed a complaint with the Ombudsman.

Kidd said it appeared there were significant delays where there was any suggestion of speeding, even if it involved speed camera tickets issued to a bus driver's personal vehicle driven by multiple family members.

Auckland lawyer Shafraz Khan frequently acts for transport clients and said he had never known anything like the current situation.

He cited the case of a driver whose P licence was finally approved after a five month delay.

'They [NZTA] didn't give a reason for a few months, when we started asking questions they issued a notice of proposal to decline [his licence] because of speeding tickets, but this guy had nowhere close to the number of tickets that the courts have deemed unacceptable.'

A Transport Agency spokesman said processing times for passenger, testing officer, driving instructor and vehicle recovery endorsements had increased to 30 working days and the website was being updated to reflect that.

More staff were being hired to bolster the Palmerston North team working remotely, but applications were also taking longer as a result of more thorough checks in the wake of the agency's tougher stance on enforcement since a review last year.

'[The agency] has raised the bar for what we consider to be fit and proper behaviour for people carrying passengers for a living.

'This means that we are carrying out more in-depth checks of traffic offending, as well as two additional checks for applicants born outside of New Zealand,' the agency spokesman said.