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Drop in Northern Ireland taxi driver numbers reaches decade-low levels

The number of taxi drivers in Northern Ireland is falling, reaching its lowest point in over a decade, according to the latest figures from the DVA Public Transport Licensing Division.

This is the thirty-eighth edition of the quarterly publication ‘DfI Driver, Vehicle, Operator, and Enforcement Statistics‘.  The statistics reported within this publication include summary key business volumes and transactions for drivers, vehicles, operators in the area of regulation and enforcement during quarter four of 2023/24.  This covers the period from 1 January 2024 to 31 March 2024.

This release presents statistical information for the volumes of activities under the following business areas:

Key Findings

DVA were active across the full range of enforcement activities this quarter having checked 748 vehicles, issued 272 fixed penalties notices totalling £41,070 in fines, completed 22 joint operations with the PSNI and 5 cross border operations with An Garda Síochána, and 33 spot checks on school buses. 

In the first quarter of 2024/25 the DVA delivered 275,936 vehicle tests, 236,142 (85.6%) full tests and 39,794 (14.4%) retests.

Just over 10,010 vehicles failed to attend a booked vehicle test this quarter, some 26.4% (3,594) fewer than the same quarter the previous year (13,609).

There were just over 308,390 vehicle test applications this quarter, a fall of 3.2% (10,138) compared to the same period in 2023/24 (318,532).

For all vehicle test applications made this quarter, 95.4% were booked using the DVA online booking system, relative to 94.9% and 91.5% for the same quarter the previous two years respectively.

The DVA conducted 17,570 driving tests, which is 7.4% (1,223) more than for the equivalent quarter in 2023/24, and 83.3% (14,647) of these were for private cars.

There were just over 20,010 applications for a driving test this quarter, relative to 19,100 for the same quarter last year, an increase of 4.8% (913).

This quarter 567 candidates failed to attend a booked driving test, a fall of 16.9% (115) compared to same period in 2023/24 (682).

The DVA delivered 22,435 theory tests this quarter, a fall of 4.1% (959) relative to the 23,394 tests conducted in the same quarter of 2023/24.

There were 3,008 customers that failed to attend a booked theory test this quarter, which represents just over 13% of all theory tests conducted during this period.

Online driver licensing application performance at 99.8% for the quarter was well above the 95% target level for online applications.

Paper driver licensing applications performance at 97.9% was over 7 percentage points above the 90% target level, the highest quarterly performance on record.

Into the first quarter of this financial year, 71.4% of all driver licensing transactions were carried out using the DVA online applications facility.

At the end of June 2024, there were 1,174,990 full and eligible licence holders with private car/light vans entitlement, which is the highest on record.

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