❓ The Minister outlines measures taken to reduce wait times and increase services at Department of Transport centres, including extended opening hours, a new assessment centre, staff recruitment, and promotion of online services. They acknowledge staff and customer patience.
AnsweredQoN 414Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
TRANSPORT — DRIVER AND VEHICLE SERVICE CENTRES
414. Ms M.J. HAMMAT to the Minister Assisting the Minister
for Transport:
I refer to the Cook Labor government's
efforts to address strong demand for driving assessments and services.
(1) Can the
minister outline to the house what measures this government has taken to help
reduce wait times, increase services and manage demand at Department of
Transport centres?
(2) Can the minister advise the house how these initiatives
are delivering positive results for families and our communities?
414. Ms M.J. HAMMAT to the Minister Assisting the Minister
for Transport:
I refer to the Cook Labor government's
efforts to address strong demand for driving assessments and services.
(1) Can the
minister outline to the house what measures this government has taken to help
reduce wait times, increase services and manage demand at Department of
Transport centres?
(2) Can the minister advise the house how these initiatives
are delivering positive results for families and our communities?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) I
thank the member for Mirrabooka for the question and for her advocacy for
greater service delivery in her electorate. She would be aware that on the
border of her electorate and mine, in Nollamara, is the Mirrabooka driver and vehicle services centre. I think it is very close
to the member for Morley's electorate as well. I know it is very
busy at times, but the staff there do a great job in the work they do helping
our community. Of course, the member would be aware that we recently announced
that Mirrabooka has been open, along with other centres, for the last couple of
Saturdays, and will be for the next six Saturdays, to help deal with the
backlog we have seen in our system.
Yesterday, with the member for
Joondalup, we attended the Joondalup Driver Assessment Centre, which is
something that the member for Joondalup advocated for in the northern suburbs
to the Minister for Transport to deal with the backlog of driving assessments
and vehicle and motorcycle learners' plate tests, which were needed.
That has been incredibly successful. We met a lot of the staff there, who do a great
job. Since the Joondalup Driver Assessment Centre opened in November, with
completely new staff not taken from anywhere else in the system, it has
conducted over 10 000 driving assessments. It is working really well. Staff
told stories yesterday about parents having celebrations when people come back
having passed the tests—hopefully on the first go for lots, or the
third go for me and a few others!
As I was saying, the Cook government
announced that the City West, Cannington and Mirrabooka driver and vehicle service centres have opened on the last
two Saturdays and will continue to do so for the next six weeks, opening
from 7.15 in the morning to 2.15 in the afternoon to process driver and vehicle transactions. I can tell members that just on
the first weekend those three centres served an additional 650 customers.
That is in addition to the customers who were already served at the Kelmscott
and Joondalup centres, which are always open on Saturdays. The eight-week blitz
is aimed at clearing some of the backlog that some of the centres have been
experiencing as a result of unprecedented increases in demand for some services
offered by the Department of Transport. We know this because we have seen an
increased population in Western Australia, and coming with that is an increased
need for overseas and interstate driver's licence transactions and a whole
host of other transactions.
The Department of Transport is also
investigating developing and implementing some other ideas that include the
recruitment of additional staff to assist in managing the flow of customers at
these existing centres. We are further investigating and mapping where we might
need additional service centres in the future, as our city and population
continue to grow. We will obviously improve communications about digital transactions and alternative solutions to
in-person attendance. Just on that, I encourage all members , if they
have not done so already, to think about creating a DoTDirect account, as well
as encouraging their constituents to do the same. It is something I did
recently. It means that all vehicle licences—I think it does skipper's
tickets and all sorts of other things—can be managed online to help
with demand in our centres. We live in an
age in which lots of things get done online. It is a really good system. It is
very secure and can help us alleviate the backlog. We continue to look
at other options like expanding services at Australia Post or, in the country,
some of those other service providers in our regions.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge
and thank the staff at our driver and vehicle service centres for their hard
work, as well as our customers for their patience, especially over what has been
a period of very intense demand.
thank the member for Mirrabooka for the question and for her advocacy for
greater service delivery in her electorate. She would be aware that on the
border of her electorate and mine, in Nollamara, is the Mirrabooka driver and vehicle services centre. I think it is very close
to the member for Morley's electorate as well. I know it is very
busy at times, but the staff there do a great job in the work they do helping
our community. Of course, the member would be aware that we recently announced
that Mirrabooka has been open, along with other centres, for the last couple of
Saturdays, and will be for the next six Saturdays, to help deal with the
backlog we have seen in our system.
Yesterday, with the member for
Joondalup, we attended the Joondalup Driver Assessment Centre, which is
something that the member for Joondalup advocated for in the northern suburbs
to the Minister for Transport to deal with the backlog of driving assessments
and vehicle and motorcycle learners' plate tests, which were needed.
That has been incredibly successful. We met a lot of the staff there, who do a great
job. Since the Joondalup Driver Assessment Centre opened in November, with
completely new staff not taken from anywhere else in the system, it has
conducted over 10 000 driving assessments. It is working really well. Staff
told stories yesterday about parents having celebrations when people come back
having passed the tests—hopefully on the first go for lots, or the
third go for me and a few others!
As I was saying, the Cook government
announced that the City West, Cannington and Mirrabooka driver and vehicle service centres have opened on the last
two Saturdays and will continue to do so for the next six weeks, opening
from 7.15 in the morning to 2.15 in the afternoon to process driver and vehicle transactions. I can tell members that just on
the first weekend those three centres served an additional 650 customers.
That is in addition to the customers who were already served at the Kelmscott
and Joondalup centres, which are always open on Saturdays. The eight-week blitz
is aimed at clearing some of the backlog that some of the centres have been
experiencing as a result of unprecedented increases in demand for some services
offered by the Department of Transport. We know this because we have seen an
increased population in Western Australia, and coming with that is an increased
need for overseas and interstate driver's licence transactions and a whole
host of other transactions.
The Department of Transport is also
investigating developing and implementing some other ideas that include the
recruitment of additional staff to assist in managing the flow of customers at
these existing centres. We are further investigating and mapping where we might
need additional service centres in the future, as our city and population
continue to grow. We will obviously improve communications about digital transactions and alternative solutions to
in-person attendance. Just on that, I encourage all members , if they
have not done so already, to think about creating a DoTDirect account, as well
as encouraging their constituents to do the same. It is something I did
recently. It means that all vehicle licences—I think it does skipper's
tickets and all sorts of other things—can be managed online to help
with demand in our centres. We live in an
age in which lots of things get done online. It is a really good system. It is
very secure and can help us alleviate the backlog. We continue to look
at other options like expanding services at Australia Post or, in the country,
some of those other service providers in our regions.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge
and thank the staff at our driver and vehicle service centres for their hard
work, as well as our customers for their patience, especially over what has been
a period of very intense demand.
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