Hauliers accuse RSA of moving driving testers off commercial vehicles
The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) has presented its claims in a letter to Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien and Minister of State at the Department of Transport Sean Canney.
The group said waiting lists for car drivers fell by 10 per cent between April and June but that there was a significant increase in the wait times for truck (42 per cent) and articulated truck (40 per cent) tests over the same period. It said there was also a backlog for bus drivers.
The RSA and the Department of Transport have been contacted for comment.
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IRHA president Ger Hyland described the situation as 'a crisis in the making' for hauliers, and said the RSA came under 'intense political pressure' to move their testing resources from commercial testing into car testing, rather than expand their testing capabilities overall.
The IRHA said the improvement in waiting times for car drivers and the increased backlog for commercial drivers coincided with a period during which Mr Canney met with RSA leadership and gave it a deadline to come up with proposals to improve driving test wait times.
The group has now called for the driver testing system to be removed from the remit of the RSA.
Mr Hyland accused the RSA of playing a 'dangerous game', describing it as 'effectively robbing Peter to pay Paul' at a time when the haulage sector is 'desperately short on drivers'.
He said the delays were 'stifling economic growth' in rural Ireland by delaying the qualification of suitably qualified professional drivers who are 'desperately needed' to support small and medium sized businesses across the country.
'Young Irish drivers who need a license to drive a bus, truck or heavy goods vehicle (HGV) cannot get licenses because the RSA have all but stopped commercial testing to focus on car testing,' he said.
'They have pulled the wool over this Government's eyes and instead of dealing with the high demand for testing, they decided to simply move the deck chairs around the Titanic.'
Mr Hyland claimed 'driving school owners' have told the group that commercial driving license testing in Ireland has 'all but stopped' over the past two months. 'That means no new bus drivers, truck drivers, HGV drivers,' he said.
'We have young Irish people who want to drive for a living but cannot get a license so we are forced to bring in drivers from South Africa instead whilst young Irish people are forced to move abroad and drive there – all because of the mismanagement of our testing system.'
He said one HGV driving instructor in Kerry told the group he did not have a scheduled commercial driving test in the Tralee centre since May and wasn't expecting one until at least August.
'He told of the devastating impact this was having on his business and how he had young drivers waiting since January for a commercial driving test to try and get a job,' Mr Hyland added.
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