DPS commissioner answers questions about driving test issues, lays out potential fixes - KSTP

Now, lawmakers have questions for DPS, and we're learning of some potential fixes the department is now laying out.

All summer long parents and soon-to-be drivers waited in lines, and waited for answers.

On Thursday, at a transportation hearing in Winona, DPS Commissioner John Harrington was questioned about those waits and why it took weeks, if not months, to get a time slot to take a road test.

"That didn't make any sense and so we started looking at why we have this backlog," Harrington told lawmakers.

5 INVESTIGATES found while you waited, DPS gave commercial driving schools thousands of reserved spots, allowing them to side-step the lines. Something Representative Jon Koznick, of Lakeville, questioned.

State gave coveted driving tests to schools trying to cash in on backlog

"Do you think that's a practice that should continue or if that's something we should do away with?" he asked.

"We believe a more equitable system needs to be worked out, and we would welcome your input and suggestions as to how we get to that equitable piece," Harrington responded.

We also found some of those driving schools willing to sell their reserved testing spots to parents like Tina Dols, for $100. Spots that are supposed to be free.

"I'm concerned there may be schools that are charging extra who have these pre-determined times, that they have been given for free on a preferred status, that they are marking up a state resource and profiting off that?" Koznick asked Harrington in the hearing.

The commissioner didn't address the selling of reserved slots, but did say DPS will be talking with the 22 metro driving schools with those coveted reservations.

"We expect there will be some pushback from the schools that have had a preferred situation where they got the first pick of driving testing dates," Harrington told lawmakers.

The commissioner did say the department already has three fixes to help alleviate the wait for drivers tests.

Starting next month, DPS says some testing facilities will stay open until 7 p.m. instead of closing at 4:30 p.m.

Next summer, DPS says it will recruit seasonal examiners to accommodate the busy summer road test times.

And, a technological fix will find the next available appointment anywhere in the state for parents looking online, the commissioner said. Adding, it will also only allow testers to have one appointment scheduled at a time.

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