South African Licensing System *PUKE*

psychogenik said:
6 tries?? :wtf:

That's not very encouraging, seeing as i'm a learner driver :(
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Don't be discouraged.

I did it on my 2nd attempt.

First time I showed up with no idea of how the test worked. The guy told me I wasn't driving K53 and I told him I drive into the Joburg CBD everyday. He told me to go fix my bad habits.

I got killed on the observation.
 
2nd attempt as well. Although I was failed for the stupidest reason the first time. No really.
 
Passed my learners first time and had to do it a couple of times. For car and bike because they expired. But agreed... the way they ask the questions in the learners is crap. Seems to have been translated from english to manderin using a Zulu translator, then from manderin to swedish using a hebrew translator and then back to english using google translate.

I passed my bike license with ease. No instructor necessary. But then again, with no road test, the examiners can't really ask for a bribe and therefore don't really have any reason to fail you unless you REALLY can't ride.

I failed only 2 times from actually doing something wrong (purely because of nerves). The other times the examiners were just dickheads and didn't want to waste their time actually doing their job. They would mark down points for non existant things (eg. parking brake ratchet points when I NEVER let it rachet) and hint at a bribe but never actually said it straight. Even this time when I passed, I looked at the points he had put against me and only half MIGHT have been valid.... But when he added them up, his face was visibly disappointed that I had passed. I am sorry to have supported corruption by buying my license, but I honestly had lost faith in the system and decided that buying it was better than standing in a que for a day and doing my test 6months later, only to fail again etc.

For future reference, Xavier Testing Station near gold reef city has a waiting list of a week long. So if you need it in a hurry, that is a decent place. Also, the ques are short and booking takes about 1hour. But they are quite strict. Especially if you get Goba.

My problem with the system is: I have been driving on the road for a good 2 years and I am a safe driver (when in the car... on my bike I enjoy myself :D ) I know how to drive in the real world. The test is made for how to drive like an idiot. If we all did the 5 point checks and everything like they want you to do for the test at all times, people would be hijacked at every stop street and driving would just generally be the most labourious task ever.

I would rather we got lessons until a driving instructor thought we were ready to go on an advanced driving course, and then after the advanced driving course, we were granted a license if they considered us ready to go on the road.

This 4 year system sounds like it is going to cost the potential license getter a fortune. According to one source, you are required to get 120hours of driving lessons. At the average cost of R200 for an hour, that is R24k.

I know one girl that tried 8times and then bought their licence. And another guy that tried 8times before he passed legitimately. My other friend passed 3rd time when he got a nice examiner that only wanted to talk about bikes and didn't even care about the test. It all seems to come down to luck. You can be unlucky many times before getting an examiner who isn't corrupt or sadistic. Or you must do a completely flawless test to ensure that the sadistic one will pass you anyway. The main problem is, when it comes down to pass or fail, it is completely in the hands of the examiner. If they don't feel like it, they can fail you. If you want to go against it, it is your word against theirs.
 
I passed my learners first time, got my drivers first time as well. I only lost one point during the entire process for crossing my hands on a turn at one stage.

If you fail it even once legitimately you shouldn't be driving.
 
congrats dude. Well I passed my driver's on second attempt. Don't really have any negative feelings toward the testing area however I think the traffic department is absolutely useless.
My car is registered as Eastern Cape however because the car is here I cannot pay for the licensing of the car here. Can only do it in PE, completely pointless if you ask me
 
HoboMincer said:
This 4 year system sounds like it is going to cost the potential license getter a fortune. According to one source, you are required to get 120hours of driving lessons. At the average cost of R200 for an hour, that is R24k.
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Say what? Do you have more detail on this? Sounds absolutely ridiculous.
 
HoboMincer said:
I would rather we got lessons until a driving instructor thought we were ready to go on an advanced driving course, and then after the advanced driving course, we were granted a license if they considered us ready to go on the road.
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Don't they tell you to unlearn the hand shuffle in advanced driving?
 
Haha dam I could drive at 120kph in my first year of driving, now they want to make it only in the 4th year. And I have yet to put a scratch on my car.

Can see it now if you apply for a truck licence you can only drive 20 then 40 then 60 and then finaly 80kph.
 
rainynight65 said:
Hand shuffle?
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:confused: How do you hold the steering wheel.

I might have been wrong, don't know.

There are different ways to steer the steering wheel, and this includes the following:
* Palming – A one-hand steering technique where you press your left palm (the hand not doing the shifting) onto the wheel to turn it round and round.
* Hand over hand – A two-handed technique where one hand may cross over the other hand when needed.
* Shuffle steering – Considered a safer way of operating the steering wheel. This entails your left hand staying on the left side of the wheel, and the right hand on the right side.
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failed first attempt at drivers, and passed second time round.

My failure the first time round was that I didn't do the checks in correct order. Basically if I was parked or stopped and I had to go into gear, I should have checked first before touching the gears, apparently I put into gear first and then only did checks before moving. Freaking retarded, my driving was perfect otherwise. That guy was a class A doos, the second time round had a sweetheart and he helped me through it if I did something silly due to nerves.
 
Did you guys have a tester who sat in the car the entire time or stood outside for the yard test? What do you think is better?
 
czc said:
Did you guys have a tester who sat in the car the entire time or stood outside for the yard test? What do you think is better?
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Mine was outside and must say I felt way more relaxed. Then he got in we went to the rolling hill and after that onto the road.
 
DarthMol said:
The thing is getting your licence is the start really, you only properly learn how to drive after you've got your licence. K53 doesn't teach you to anticipate traffic patterns, be aware of gaps to escape into if you can't brake in time, wet weather handling and actually looking out the front windscreen instead of your mirrors all the time ;)
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Sounds fairly reasonable, K53 doesn't seem to teach much in terms of real-world driving.

Do first world countries also have a system like K53?
 
HoboMincer said:
Well, for this young motorist, it seems 6 is the lucky number.

After 6 tries, I today, finally passed my license... legitimately... without bribing and without just getting lucky and having a half asleep examiner.

Anyone who wants to rant about their experiences with the system, now is your chance... I'm too lazy. Lets just put it this way, If i could redo, I would save all the money I wasted on lessons and rebookings etc. and have bought my license straight up last year through a driving school so I would know it was real. I have wasted much time in ques and much money on rebookings, lessons and buying one license which turned out to be fake.
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Congratz took me 7 tries 4 from their incompetency and not checking when I am looking everywhere even though my head doesn't move much and 3 from my accidental mistakes like hitting pole or curb when I was nervous first 3 times.

When I got on road everytime I did everything perfect, even had to pass a tractor lol.

What was strange is that I did everything the same on road everytime yet my score was drastically different with each tester.
 
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