NC DMV is offering road tests for driver’s licenses again, but in limited places
The N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles has resumed offering road tests to teen drivers seeking provisional licenses during the COVID-19 pandemic and plans to expand the program this month.
The DMV largely stopped offering road tests last March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus between drivers and employees. It made exceptions for commercial driver’s licenses or for medical exemptions.
In July, the agency waived the driver’s test requirement for most people seeking their first North Carolina license based on their previous training or safe driving record.
But the policy didn’t apply to 16- or 17-year-olds seeking a provisional license. A bill signed into law in June had waived the required driver’s test to get a Level 2 provisional license, which allows teens to drive unsupervised between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. or when going directly to or from work or volunteer fire or EMS service.
After six months at Level 2, teens under 18 qualify for a Level 3 or full provisional license, which only prohibits a person from speaking on a phone behind the wheel. The law waiving the road test for Level 2 licenses required one for the full provisional license.
So in October, the DMV developed a road test that doesn’t go out on the road or require license examiners and drivers to sit next to each other in a car.
The tests are done in large parking lots, with cones to create a test course, said DMV spokesman Steve Abbott.
“The test consists of an examiner, standing at a safe distance outside the vehicle, giving each driver a series of instructions of what to do in terms of turning, parking and handling basic driving skills in the controlled environment,” Abbott wrote in an email.
Because of the need for a large parking lot, the DMV has offered the tests at only 14 of its 115 drivers license offices in the state, including the Raleigh office off Avent Ferry Road. Starting this month, it will double that number to 28 offices to try to meet the growing demand, Abbott said.
Arranging for a road test has required teens or their parents to call the DMV’s main call center. Because getting through to someone there is often difficult, the DMV is setting up a special email address, DMVDS@ncdot.gov, to request an appointment for a driver’s test.
The road tests are available not only to teens but also to other drivers not exempt under the DMV’s waiver policy. They include people who previously failed a road test but couldn’t arrange a re-test before last March; anyone whose license was suspended when it expired and needs a road test to get it back; and drivers who are not permanent residents and require documentation to show their lawful presence in the country.
In a related move, legislators have introduced a bill that would allow DMV to use outside vendors to provide road tests to teens seeking provisional licenses. That would mean a road test a student took from a driving school or private instructor could fulfill the requirement. The bill, Senate Bill 69, was introduced this week.
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
