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Speaker 1: Doesn't look like the wait times for a driver's license

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Speaker 1: are getting any better. So wait times in Auckland are

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Speaker 1: staying stubbornly high. Despite the government scrapping the unlimited free

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Speaker 1: test resets in July, it's still ninety four days to

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Speaker 1: wait for a restricted test now. Alista McGregor is driving

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Speaker 1: instructor based in Pookokoe.

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Speaker 2: Hey, Alistair, Yeah, how how are you?

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Speaker 1: I'm very well, thank you. Did I hear that you

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Speaker 1: had to send somebody to Danavik from Pookakoe the other day.

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Speaker 2: For a test? Yep. About a fortnight ago a student

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Speaker 2: was desperate for his full licensed tests, couldn't find anywhere

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Speaker 2: in the Auckland region and the found a test in

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Speaker 2: danny Verka all places, so a good six and a

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Speaker 2: bit hours drive down there for essentially the full test

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Speaker 2: is thirty minutes, thirty minutes a fourth at four thirty

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Speaker 2: got pass the test and then six and a half

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Speaker 2: hours back. So that's what people are doing now for

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Speaker 2: in some cases to get a test.

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Speaker 1: Is this an odd is this is a rare thing

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Speaker 1: or is this happening more frequently?

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Speaker 2: Well, anecdotally, I've got students been going out to Thames

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Speaker 2: which is not uncommon down to Hamilton again, not uncommon,

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Speaker 2: it's uncommon to go as far Danny Hurk. I've had

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Speaker 2: a student go down to Tamworth and Nui and two

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Speaker 2: or three days ago I had a student's mum tried

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Speaker 2: to make a book in for a test which I

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Speaker 2: couldn't for a drive which I couldn't do. But that

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Speaker 2: student had a test book in New Plymouth and was

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Speaker 2: planted to go to New plymouths for their testes. So

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Speaker 2: the thing is people are desperate to get tests.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, how has this happened? Because I would have thought

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Speaker 1: that once we scrapped the unlimited free tests that we'll

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Speaker 1: clear up what's going on.

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Speaker 2: Well, at the moment is it's taken a while to

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Speaker 2: work through the tests regime. The pricing changed about a

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Speaker 2: month ago and it's still going to take a while

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Speaker 2: the existing testiny to be worked through. So it's going

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Speaker 2: to take a month or two, maybe a little longer

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Speaker 2: before it starts to ease. Now with the approaching Christmas,

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Speaker 2: people get desperate for tests of bookings as soon as

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Speaker 2: they are available are snapped up.

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Speaker 1: So this is also going to get worse as the

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Speaker 1: year goes on. I understand because apparently people start getting

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Speaker 1: real eager before Christmas.

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Speaker 2: Well that's true, and then you've got holidays and all

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Speaker 2: sorts of factors coming in. Students got time off, you know,

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Speaker 2: exam leave and study time which they use hopefully to

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Speaker 2: get a license or a test before Christmas. They want

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Speaker 2: that test, you can they spend the holidays, have a

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Speaker 2: car and do some driving, et cetera. So it does

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Speaker 2: become normally at this end of the year, it tends

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Speaker 2: to get more desperate to get tests and it's compounded

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Speaker 2: by the current wait times at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Alistair's good to talk to you mate, Thank you very

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Speaker 1: much for that, Alistair McGregor County's Driving School. For more

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Speaker 1: from Hither Duplessy Alan Drive, listen live to news talks

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Speaker 1: it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio