If you're the parent of a teen or young adult, you may know firsthand the challenges of scheduling a driver's exam. Over the last several years, Minnesota's driver's licensing system has been congested due to more people seeking licenses and staff shortages at Driver and Vehicle Services (DVS). This summer, the Star Tribune reported on how this problem persists.
The ongoing issues faced by driver examination stations across the state were also documented by the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) in their Driver Examination Stations: 2021 Evaluation Report, followed by updates in 2022 and 2023.
In 2023, the legislature mandated a report from the Department of Public Safety, Driver and Vehicle Services, to review recommendations from both the OLA and a 2022 independent review. DVS reported that all recommendations were implemented with the exception of a required pre-application.
A related new report in the library this month is the Legislative Report on Exam Scheduling. According to this latest report from DVS, there were 188,444 Class D and commercial driver's license appointments scheduled with DVS, and 146,794 road tests taken in fiscal year 2024. DVS received an appropriation to hire additional examiners, which will open up over 140,000 exam slots per year in an effort to alleviate the difficulty many Minnesotans have when scheduling their class D road test.