“Can I See Your Driver’s Licence, Please?”

Illustration by Eden Laing.

Drivers License’ by Olivia Rodrigo played in my head as I stared at the screen with bloodshot eyes. 

Earlier that day, I failed my learner’s licence test for the second time. 

The song made it seem so easy to get a driver’s licence, to the point a breakup was more important than actually passing. 

People bustled about behind me, oblivious to my exhaustion as I pulled away from the cubicle. Later, a Chinese woman slightly older than me exclaimed in triumph that she  passed her theory test. My mother and I watched her, exhausted and frustrated that we had both just failed the same test, a couple of times. 

“This test is rigged,” I said. My mother silently returned a weary smile because she had already passed both the theory and practical driving tests decades ago with flying colours in our home country, Malaysia. 

Yet, upon coming to New Zealand, she had been treated as dumb because people assumed her to be unable to speak English because of her colour, despite English being her first language. Now, these feelings have been invisibly amplified as we churned out another $20 each just to fail the theory test again. 

While I was tired from failing the theory test twice despite studying hard for it, she was even more tired from retaking the theory test and later on, the practical test, because she had already gone through driving tests when she was in Malaysia. 

Even though the driving tests are different since road rules depend on each country, the test feels impossibly hard. What was even harder was the fact that we hardly had a choice but to take it just to gain a convenient ID. A mere card used as proof of identity verification in anything from applying for an IRD number, picking up items from online shopping through ‘Click n’ Collect’ to collecting controlled medical items.  

How does one get about in a foreign country when they need to sit for a test that’s tricky to pass just to show that their identity is not a fake? Just to prove that they have the right to be accepted and treated as one of the people here? Just to prove that we are not illegal immigrants just because we look different and just because our I.D. cards show a different country of origin instead? 

Driver’s Licence: An International Student’s Perspective 

From high school, we all talk about what it would be like to drive, when we plan to take the driving test, what car we would like to buy, or whether we should just rely on public transportation.  

In places where driving tests are highly difficult to pass, higher road safety is expected. This is a good thing since people can drive around without having to worry about getting into road accidents. After all, everyone around me said that the restricted driving test is the hardest since it’s the practical test. However, in reality, road accidents still happen and it doesn’t take very long to see that there are drivers who don’t abide by the traffic rules. This is despite the high standards raised by the restricted tests. While some of us are pretty satisfied with taking public transportation, there aren’t many other options to get some ID.  

It turns out my mother and I were not the only ones who faced these difficulties with getting a learner’s licence.  

Liu Xinran, former student of Massey University, said that the theory test to attain a learner’s licence was difficult because there were many small details that needed to be remembered, such as the cost of a fine. Liu agreed that it was unfair that a driver’s licence was needed for almost everything to get about. 

On the brighter side, when asked whether she still wants to try to get a driver’s licence, she said that she will re-take the test in October because re-take tests will be free from October. According to Stuff, people will only have to pay the application fee for driving tests from October 1, while the fees to change, rebook and cancel tests will become free. 

I appreciate what the government is doing by scratching those fees, but I would personally prefer if there were more user-friendly methods for identity verification, since it still takes loads of time to attain a driver’s license. I’ve recently learned about Kiwi Access cards, which seem like the best option. Previously known as the 18+ Card, they’re a Government recognised form of photographic ID and evidence of age card that doesn’t require sitting a test to get. This is far preferable to passports or visas which take ages to dig out and don’t feel very safe to carry everywhere. The chances of getting mugged are never zero. 

As university students, we’re already doing our best to manage our time between our studies and (for most of us) our part-time jobs. Having to squeeze in more time to learn to drive, only to fork out more money each time we need to re-sit the test is not very student-friendly.