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After reporting delays in the issuing of the new drivers licence,
my licence arrived in Saturday\'s mail just over a week after
I applied for it. Am I red faced or what? Well, if I am, you can\'t
tell from my licence because on my licence I am a hairy man while in real life I am
a smooth man. I hate beards but it was worth the 8 weeks of itchiness just
to upset the powers that be. Of course it won\'t stop their fancy software
from being able to identify me as that works off bone points rather than the
actual image. Still it\'ll confuse the odd cop or two.
The other thing is that the signature on my licence just doesn\'t look like
the signature on any of my other cards :-(
In other news, there have been suggestions that the AA attempted to pull out
of the licencing scheme due to verbal and physical assaults on their staff. The Minister of
Transport is, of course, denying this. Now that the AA is a Government agent and deriving part of its income from
Government services (even if they only get $10 for each licence, they\'ll make $25,000,000 this year) is there a conflict of interest?
How can they maintain their role as driver\'s advocates in this situation?
And surprise, surprise. The LTSA has already started selling drivers licence information.
They\'re encouraging companies to provide them with details of any staff who drive company vehicles so that
the LTSA can notify them as soon as a driver loses their licence (at a cost of $1.54). This service is a bit of
a Hobson\'s choice for the employers because, if they don\'t take it and one of their drivers gets caught driving
without a licence, the company will lose the use of their vehicle for 28 days!
If you\'ve got any other tidbits or want to have your say, send us some e-mail to
licence.woes@silver-bullet.co.nz.
