‘Waiting time for practical exam still much too long’

People who want to get their driver’s license still have to book a practical exam too long in advance, reports caretaker Minister Mark Harbers (Infrastructure). The reservation term was over sixteen weeks at the end of June, more than twice as long as the target for the Central Bureau for Driving Skills (CBR): which is seven weeks. The CBR expects the reservation periods to last around sixteen weeks throughout the summer. Only then will the average waiting time decrease. According to Harbers, the term will be eight to ten weeks at the end of this year. That’s a lot lower than the terms of recent years, but still above the target of seven weeks. According to the CBR, it is not necessary to take emergency measures and Harbers accepts this.

There have been problems at the CBR for some time, including the long waiting times for driving tests. Last year the waiting time fell from 21 to twelve weeks, but later the reservation period increased again and remained at the too high level. The demand for practical exams has increased more than the CBR had expected, “particularly as a result of migration,” says Harbers. Especially in the Randstad, people who want to take their practical exam have to wait a long time: in some places the reservation period is even 22 weeks. The CBR is now moving resources and examiners from the region to the Randstad, but this is causing delays in the meantime. A third reason why the waiting times are not decreasing is that the CBR must once again provide full quality assurance for examiners. The program for this was only partially applied for two years, because the CBR had to catch up after corona.