Memorandum from the Driving Standards
Agency
The most significant services provided by DSA
to individual citizens together with volumes and costs are:
Service
| Volume `000s[141]
| Cost £000s[142]
|
Practical driving tests (car & motorcycle)
| 1,996 | 85,643 |
| Theory tests (all categories) | 1,527
| 29,197 |
| Practical driving tests (lorry & bus) |
113 | 8,362 |
| Maintaining ADI register | 92[143]
| 9,002 |
| |
|
Q. What formal systems do you have for gathering customer
feedback?
Answer:
| Yes/No
| Cost pa |
Facility on Website | No
| |
| Response cards at Office | No
| |
| Focus Groups | Yes | £36k approx.
|
| User Surveys | Yes | £98k approx.
|
| Analysis of complaints | Yes
| Met within Salary budget |
| |
|
Q. What systems are more effective?
All of the above systems are effective for different purposes
and any systems that we discover are not effective, for example
customer suggestion boxes, are no longer used.
Q. Can you identify any changes made as a result of gathering
user feedback?
As a result of customer feedback we constantly review the way
we work and deliver our services. For example in 2005, we made
some changes to the way we operate including counting Saturday
as a working day and reducing the driving test appointment cancellation
period from ten days to three days. The Business Customer Conferences
are another example of responding to and acting upon customer
feedback.
Q. If you undertake user surveys how often are they repeated
and how much is spent on each survey?
Customer satisfaction surveys are carried out annually whilst
ad hoc qualitative work (for example customer focus groups) is
carried out when required. A breakdown of costs for the past four
years for this research work, and a breakdown of costs for this
current financial year, are listed below:
2002-03:
Customer satisfaction (continuous quantitative)—£62,674
Customer satisfaction (ad hoc qualitative)—£30,750
2003-04:
Customer satisfaction (continuous quantitative)—£79,097
Customer satisfaction (ad hoc qualitative)—£11,935
2004-05:
Customer satisfaction (continuous quantitative)—£102,179
Customer satisfaction (ad hoc qualitative)—£73,295
2005-06:
Customer satisfaction (continuous quantitative)—£123,124
Customer satisfaction (ad hoc qualitative)—£30,358
2006-07:
Customer satisfaction (continuous quantitative)—£122,250
Customer satisfaction (ad hoc qualitative)—£35,613
Q: What targets for customer service, if any, are in place?
The Secretary of State targets for 2006-07 aimed at improving
access to services for customers are:
— for appointments to be available within nine weeks
at 90% of permanent car driving test centres; [current position:
99%]
— to achieve candidate satisfaction with the overall
service received at 90% or better; [92% in 2005/06. Current position:
n/a]
— to develop electronic services to provide greater
choice and achieve 60%of theory test bookings and 50% of car practical
test bookings being online by 31 March 2007. [current position:
61% for theory test and 59% for car practical test]
Service Standards aimed at maintaining or improving customer
services:
Theory Test Customers
We will give 95% of candidates an appointment at their preferred
test centre within 2 weeks of their preferred date. Current performance
99
We will keep 99.5% of all theory test appointments. Current
performance 99.9%
Practical Test Customers
We will keep 98% of appointments that are in place 3 days
prior to the test. Current performance: 98%
National average waiting time will be no longer than;
4 weeks for motorcycle tests: current performance: 3.7 weeks
3 weeks for vocational tests: current performance: 3.4 weeks
6 weeks car tests: current performance: 5.6 weeks
Telephone Answering
After a call has gone through our automated call-handling
system, we will answer 90% of all incoming calls to booking offices
in no more than 20 seconds. Current performance: 91%
95% of calls to booking offices will make contact with our
automated call-handling system without receiving an engaged tone.
current performance: 100%
We will answer 90% of calls to our enquiry points in no more
than 30 seconds. current performance: 97%
Finance
95% of all refunds will be paid within 15 days of receipt
of a valid claim. current performance: 98%
98% of undisputed & settled invoices will be paid within
30 days. current performance: 98%
Correspondence
We will answer 97% of all letters and e-mails within 10 working
days. Current performance: 98%
E—Transactions
Our on-line booking service will be available 99% of the
time over 24 hours, 7 days a week. current performance: 99% &
100%
Q. Do you have a complaint handling unit, or are complaints
handled where they are received?
The complaint is first dealt with by the Customer Service
Unit at the Area Office (soon to be known as the Customer Enquiry
Unit under the new working arrangements, Driving Safety Forward).
If the complainant is not satisfied with the response the complaint
is escalated to the Chief Executive's Office.
Q How many full time equivalents are involved in complaint
handling, and at what grades?
DSA has no staff who deal solely with complaints. Under the
Driving Safety Forward arrangements we will have 45 staff dealing
with:
— Ministerial correspondence
— expressions of gratitude
— Freedom of Information requests
— Data Protection requests
The composition of that team will be:
| Grade 7 | 1 |
| SEO | 2 |
| HEO | 4 |
| EO | 11 |
| AO | 23 |
| AA | 4 |
Q. Do you have an internal review process for dealing with
complaints? If so, how does it operate?
Yes. An extract of DSA's Customer Service a guide to our
service standard leaflet setting out the complaints handling procedure
is attached at Annex A.
The full leaflet can be found at http://www.dsa.gov.uk/Category.asp?cat=16.
Q. Do you do any analysis of complaints to inform service
delivery and design?
Yes. The Respond correspondence monitoring system analyses
all letters received and identifies the areas receiving the highest
level of complaints.
Annex A
COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
Step one
Complaints about tests—You can e-mail, write
to or phone theory test customer services or your local practical
test customer service unit (see pages 16 and 17 for the contact
details) if you have any questions or complaints about:
— out-of-pocket expenses;
— delays in providing tests;
— how the tests were carried out.
Please give the reasons for your complaint and the solution
you are looking for.
We will send other enquiries and complaints to the appropriate
office for them to deal with.
Complaints about CBT—If you have any questions
or complaints about your CBT course that you cannot sort out with
your trainer, you should contact the CBT section at DSA Head Office,
Nottingham.
Complaints about ADIs—If you have a complaint
about an ADI that you cannot sort out with the instructor, driving
school or contractor, you can write to the Registrar of ADIs at
DSA Head Office, Nottingham.
Complaints from ADIs—If you have a complaint
about the ADI Register, write to the Registrar of ADIs at DSA
Head Office, Nottingham.
Data Protection Act—In line with the Data Protection
Act 1998, we cannot investigate or respond to any complaint someone
makes to us for you without your permission in writing. If someone
else writes to us for you, please make it clear that they have
your permission to do this.
Step two
If you have followed the procedure in step one and are not
satisfied with the response, you may write to our Chief Executive
at DSA Head Office, Nottingham.
We aim to answer complaints within 10 working days.
Step three
If you have followed steps one and two and are still not
satisfied, you may also get advice from a Member of Parliament
(MP).
You may also ask to have your complaint investigated by:
— the Independent Complaints Assessor, by contacting
our DSA Chief Executive; or
— the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
(the Ombudsman), through
an MP. You can get more information from DSA Head Office, Nottingham.
Right to appeal—If you don't pass your driving test, you
will obviously be disappointed. Although your examiner's decision
can't be changed, if you
think your test wasn't carried out in line with the regulations,
you have the right to appeal.
If you live in England or Wales, you have six months after
the test in which to appeal.
If you live in Scotland, you have 21 days after the test
in which to appeal.
February 2007
141
DSA Annual Report & Accounts 2005-05. Back
142
As DSA is a trading fund all costs are recovered through statutory
fees at no cost to the public purse. Back
143
41,000 registered ADIs + 51,000 in qualifying process. Back
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