WA government to spend $4 million on new driver licensing centre to reduce significant wait times
It's hoped the construction of a new driver's licensing centre in Perth's south-east can make a dent in the significant wait times for people obtaining their permits across the city.
The state government will spend $4 million on a new centre to service growing demand in the Armadale and Byford areas as part of an election commitment, but it is yet to determine the exact location.
Locals must currently travel 30 to 40 minutes to access licensing services at centres in Cannington or Success.
Driving services in WA have come under fire in recent years, following reports of participants having to wait months to sit a driving test.
The Department of Transport was also forced to tighten security around test booking systems, following reports of people bulk booking and reselling test appointments.
Assistant Transport Minister Jessica Stojkovski said progress had been made to address the concerns.
'One of the issues that we were finding were essentially bots were going on and booking up a lot of the driver assessment time slots,' she said.
'There's been a lot work done by the Department of Transport to stop that practice.
'We have actually seen really good availability around the metro area and into the regions for those driver assessments.'
The Department of Transport's Chad Simeons agreed, saying it was possible to find test appointments within a week of booking.
'We've opened the Joondalup Centre which is a driver assessment centre, so that's helped a lot,' he said.
'We've put on new driver assessors as well, and in fact if I was to log on now and try and get a practical driving assessment, I can get one within a week, permitted I want to travel anywhere in the metropolitan area.'
It's in addition to extended trading hours at the Cannington, Mirrabooka and City West centres, which will be open from 7.15am to 5.30pm on weekdays during an eight-week trial.
No additional staff will be employed to accommodate the two-hour extension, but about 40 new positions have been created to assist with the increase in service demand.
The same three centres last year completed a six-day trading trial with more than 12,800 people making use of the weekend hours.
Mr Simeons said measures to relieve pressure on the industry have reduced average customer wait times from 26 minutes to 19 minutes in the past 12 months.
Ms Stojkovski said an increase in interstate migration had contributed to the boom in demand.
'When somebody comes here from interstate they do actually need to transfer over their driver's licence,' she said.
She said the state government would consider implementing extended hours elsewhere in WA as part of the trial evaluation.
A construction or project completion date has yet to be set for the new licensing centre.
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