DMV truck-test backlog sparks bipartisan privatization bill
SACRAMENTO – California state officials are worried about a shortage of certified truck drivers to meet the state’s growing transportation needs, yet a reported testing backlog at the California Department of Motor Vehicles is undermining efforts to get more truckers on the road.
“The commercial side of the DMV is so backlogged that if you finished your truck driving courses today, you’d have to wait 56 business days for an appointment to take your driver’s license test,” according to the office of Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno. Would-be truck drivers have contacted him for help, complaining people will camp outside the DMV overnight to be able to get a place in line and get their test taken.
The DMV recently disputed the long wait times, telling a local TV station its Fresno office is offering appointments within six days. This contradicts the response received by Patterson’s office, who were told of eight-week waits, excepting occasional last-minute appointment openings.
The director of the Fresno Department of Transportation sent a corroborating letter to Assemblyman Patterson noting similar challenges the city’s bus service faced over the past two years navigating new drivers through the DMV process.
“In November 2016, the delays were so long that the department sent drivers to Sacramento,” wrote Fresno Department of Transportation Director Brian Marshall. “The department paid wages and overnight lodging for 15 drivers.” Only two drivers, however, were able to get tested, even after making the trek to Sacramento.
Marshall supports new legislation, authored by Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, D-Pomona, and co-authored by Patterson, allowing third-party testing of drivers. The state currently accepts third-party testing and licensing in a variety of areas. For instance, Californians can handle many DMV functions at American Automobile Association offices, while Realtors are tested and licensed through quick third-party processes.
In an interview Tuesday, Patterson said the DMV had not made significant progress on the issue until legislators introduced Assembly Bill 301. This legislation “seeks to reduce the severe backlog in availability of commercial Driver’s License (CDL) skills test appointments at the DMV by expanding current law to allow additional third parties, including training schools and government entities, to conduct skills tests,” according to the legislative fact sheet. Unions would be authorized to offer the tests, as well as municipalities and independent schools.
Patterson says the DMV’s current efforts to reduce wait times to four weeks is still unacceptable. “There are 30,000 unfilled trucking driving jobs in this state,” he said. “People are begging to get their licenses so they can go to work. We need to do everything we can to make sure that happens.”
The assemblyman indicated the gravity of this statewide problem. According to June DMV self-reporting data, wait times were approximately 50 days to get an appointment in Arleta, Fresno, Fremont, Ukiah and Lancaster. According to the fact sheet, “wait times in California ranged from a minimum of 19 business days before the next available appointment, to a high of 61 business days. In December 2016, 17 of the state’s 23 locations that provide CDL skills tests had wait times longer than three weeks with the longest wait being in Montebello at 65 business days, or 13 weeks.”
The legislation points to a nationwide truck-driving shortage, which is why 39 other states allow some form of third-party commercial-truck license tests. Under the bill, the DMV would have the authority to approve the private testing sites.
Critics of the current DMV process are concerned about the implications for would-be drivers, who can’t always afford to wait two months before they get started on the job. And then there are the taxpayer implications, as the Fresno transportation situations makes clear. Simply stated, taxpayers are paying drivers, who can’t work until they get through the licensing process, along with the cost implications for firms that rely on commercial truck drivers.
The DMV on February 22 dedicated a new truck-test center in Gardena that “will conduct approximately 7,000 drive tests and process 4,000 commercial driver licenses related applications annually. The office is staffed with 23 employees,” according to the agency’s statement. That may help reduce the backlog in parts of Southern California by consolidating operations that were spread around the region, although the legislation’s backers argue third-party testing offers more hope for quickly fixing the statewide problem – and that using third-party vendors is less costly for taxpayers than creating new centers.
The DMV said that it doesn’t comment on pending legislation and didn’t directly address the specific problems raised by Assemblyman Patterson. “The DMV noticed a higher volume of Commercial Driver License applicants requesting appointments to take the behind-the-wheel skills test,” the agency said. “As a result, on Jan. 7, 2017, the DMV began offering Saturday appointments only to individuals wanting to take this specific exam at nine locations across the state,” it added in response to CalWatchdog’s questions. “The DMV strives to offer commercial drive test exams to our customers within 30 days of making an appointment.”
Steven Greenhut is Western region director for the R Street Institute. He is based in Sacramento. Write to him at [email protected]
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Steven Greenhut
Steven Greenhut is CalWatchdog’s contributing editor. Greenhut was deputy editor and columnist for The Orange County Register for 11 years. He is author of the new book, “Plunder! How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation.”
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privatization of this testing could be the start of a new effort to dismantle the city government’s severe overburdening on citizens. An outsourcing effort would be the ideal thing to do. I’ve suggested just such an effort throughout the state, http://bit.ly/10rkHTM, which could lead to great savings everywhere..
Comrades
They own you……in so many amazing ways.
Got my class A last year and now train my employees to get theirs. It was a 3 month wait from the time I took the written until the time I could get an appointment to do the behind the wheel part. Ridiculous.
One of my drivers took the written and then waited 2-1/2 months to take the behind the wheel. He failed 1 part and had to wait another 3 months for retest.Privatize this now
Several months waiting after you take the written test or an unreasonable time to take the test can cause one the fail the second test. It’s unfortunate the DMV cannot be sued for the incompetence.
If you can’t retain the truck driving knowledge for 2 months then you shouldn’t have a commercial license.
Thats easy just eliminate all those idiotic regulations and red tape and the buracricy as well
Plover
You will live in regulated misery and in fear of losing your ration of gruel…..first they told ya you’re a pig for driving a pale yellow 8 banger LTD…..pollution and bad PC optics…..now you drive a spiffee fuel sanctioned Focus…..and they are about to spank you with fees, surcharges, etc.
Oh my! What could be next…..a donut tax?
I completely disagree.
Testing for Class A should not be easily had. Sorry but we have 6 drivers for our company and everyone of them is trained via us, school and then the state test. Even then, the mission is to be safe and to farm it out means those less likely to pass will pass and should not pass.
This is not a crisis. Keep the standards high for once in your lives people. Big rigs are no joke.
Everybody is trying to solve this the WRONG WAY.
1. Require ALL Public Employees to have a Valid Medical Certificate and a Class A license.
2. Require Retesting Annually for All Public Employees.
The problems will be Fixed Overnight.
You don’t know what you are talking about you are a moron that thing you are saying solves nothing whatsoever
The Pasadena DMV office has armed security at both doors and all the employees are behind thick bullet proof acrylic protection.
Only the government doesn’t have to treat their customers better.
A private business would have to cater to the customer or would go out of business.
The Dmv wants you to fail your skills test, so you pay another $80.00 Dollars look at the $ they can make , so they fail you for the stupidest things. Then you pay and take your written again. What a bunch of crooks.
Dmv wants you to fail so they can collect another $80.00 X that 4000. and you will see why.
The DMV was backlogged forty years ago. Nice to see things Have changed! Problem is in CA they just get worse! What the hell has this state come to? Looks like bureaucrats are running their own asylum and screwing things up for all of us! I was gone for 25 years and this state is unrecognizable!