The company that operates the National Car Test has emerged as the preferred candidate to win a contract to provide 40,000 driving tests in a bid to reduce the waiting times for learner drivers.
NCT Service (NCTS) Ltd, which is a member of the Swiss multinational SGS Group, is the front-runner among four tenders to provide privatised driving tests.
The Department is believed to have been particularly impressed with the NCTS plan for a customer focused booking service. This will see customers required to confirm their appointments to reduce the number of cancelled tests.
Drivers using the NCTS driving test system will be able to confirm or re-arrange their appointments by telephone, fax, mail, email, sms or through a dedicated online website
The company has 43 centres across the state and is half-way through a 10-year contract awarded by the Government to operate the NCT. A mid-term review by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which included public consultation on the firm's quality of service, recommend NCTS complete its contract.
Outsourcing a limited number of driving tests is a key part of a plan by the Minister for Transport Martin Cullen to reduce the list of almost 131,000 people waiting to take their driving test.
This backlog has led to a wait of more than 60 weeks for some learner drivers, resulting in an estimated 375,000 motorists driving on provisional licences. The waiting list is growing by approximately 1,500 per month.
NCTS does not currently conduct driver tests, and will have to train the approximately 25 staff it has identified with the appropriate background to carry out the tests.
Training is expected to take six to eight weeks, using the criteria for the existing driver testers contracted to the Department. The contact allows up to 18 months for the completion of the 40,000 tests.
NCTS is also understood to have offered a structured and effective complaint handling process.
If the current failure rate of between 45 to 50 per cent for drivers taking their test is maintained by a private company, 20,000 people will get driving licences under the scheme.
Although the Minister hopes to formally appoint the firm in the near future, he faces strong opposition from full-time driver testers.
Impact, the trade union representing these driver testers, is opposed to the plan and has referred the matter to the Labour Relations Commission for this Friday. The union claims the Department of Transport has breached the terms of Sustaining Progress by its decision to outsource.
Tom Hoare, Impact assistant general secretary said "while there a provision in Sustaining Progress which provides for outsourcing of non-core work, driving tests are core work for testers."
Sources in Government have consulted on this issue and are believed to be confident that the plan falls with the remit of the Sustaining Progress.
Impact said it had offered more flexibility, with driver testers working overtime and at weekends. More than 90 of the 109 contracted testers had agreed to these proposals, according to the union.
The Department recently advertised for new testers and a panel of candidates is to be drawn up shortly. It is not yet clear how many additional driver testers will be appointed.
