The Western Australian government will bring its license testing system in line with other states and territories from April 11 this year
New technology will be employed by the Western Australian government to bring fairness to the bookings system for practical driving assessments (PDA) in the state.
The changes, announced on March 16, will see the online bookings system strengthened against the use of AI to search and bulk book driving tests for particular driving instructors or schools.
It will also put an end to the ability of driving instructors to swap PDA bookings among their clients – a system which has been exploited for commercial gain by some.
Western Australian Transport Minister Rita Saffioti says while many instructors had use the current system responsibly, and as intended, there were some instructors who had started bulk booking and then charging learner drivers a fee to access one of the bookings they had obtained.
“Switching off the function (allowing swaps) not only means we clamp down on instructors gaming the system and trying to charge for tests, but it could also help free up more tests by removing their incentive to bulk-book,” Saffioti says.
Tightening up the software itself to combat “bots” being used to scan, source and book test times is another element of the government’s approach.
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“The enhanced reCAPTCHA process will also weed out the automated bots sweeping up bookings as they become available and communications to learners and their parents about only sitting their test when they are ready will also help in providing a fair system that meets the expectations of all customers and encourages better prepared and safer candidates,” Saffioti says.
The Department of Transport will advise driving instructors of the changes to the booking swap function and the ability to book, cancel and change an individual appointment will remain for all customers.
The DoT says an evaluation of the impact of the decision to switch off the function will be undertaken after six months, and the Government will continue to look at options to improve the availability of PDA bookings.
It says it also recruiting more driving assessors with seven new assessors recently hired, and further recruitment to occur in April.
An education campaign will also be launched to remind learners and their parents or supervisors about the importance of being well prepared to undertake their driving tests.
The average pass rate across the Western Australian metro area in the past two years has been 31 per cent.