The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) has accused the Road Safety Authority (RSA) of "massaging" driver testing figures by moving testers from one category to another.
It claimed that the RSA moved testers from articulated truck, bus and truck tests to car tests in order to reduce wait times for car driving tests, adding that waiting times for commercial driving tests have increased "exponentially".
Hauliers said that this has caused the waiting lists for driving tests for a car to fall by 10% between April and June, but has led to a "significant increase" in the wait times for truck (42%) and articulated truck (40%) tests during the same period.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, IRHA President Ger Hyland said that it is "almost impossible" to get an articulated truck driving test, adding that "it's affecting our industry unbelievably".
Listen: Hauliers accuse RSA of 'massaging' driver testing figures
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"The average age of our drivers is around 60 years of age, so between natural losses and drivers retiring and one thing and another, we are an industry in crisis." driving test."
Mr Hyland said that it has become increasingly difficult to get young people to consider a career in the sector and that while the waiting time for a test had previously been six months, drivers now "can’t get a test at all."
In a statement, the RSA said that there were fewer tests conducted in June compared to May, when "record levels" of tests were carried out.
"This was due to the temporary prioritisation of training programmes for new driving testers, as per our Action Plan aimed at reducing driving test waiting times nationwide," the statement said.
It said it was tasked by the Government with reducing waiting times to ten weeks by September and said it is continuing to deliver significant numbers of truck and bus tests.
Mr Hyland said young people are emigrating after failing their tests because it can take too long to wait for a retest.
"If you fail your first test, then it can take a year-and-a-half to get a truck license, which is a nonsense in this State."
Mr Hyland called for the removal of the RSA from the testing process.
"For an authority to allow this to happen shows the lack of understanding of our industry."
Number of applicants waiting for tests increased
According to figures provided by the Central Statistics Office to the association, there was a 27% increase in the number of driving test applicants waiting at month end for a test between June 2024 and June 2025.
Between April and June this year, the RSA recorded a 10% drop in the number of driving test applicants.
However, the number of applicants waiting for an articulated truck license test between April and June 2025 rose by 39.6%.
The number of applicants waiting at month end for a category C truck license driving test rose by 42% between April and June 2025, going from 907 to 1289 people.
The figures show a decrease in new driving test applications for category C truck licenses of 12.6% between April and June 2025.
It also recorded an 8.5% decrease for new category CE articulated truck tests between April and June 2025.
The CSO figures also show that the 'driving test applicants scheduled’ for cars/light vans between April and June 2025 increased by 49.2% from 15,287 tests to 22,810 scheduled tests.
The number of scheduled tests for category C trucks fell by 61.8% from 356 to 136, while those for articulated trucks (CE license) fell by 69% from 242 tests scheduled in April 2025 to 75 tests in June.
IRHA call on Govt to remove testing from RSA
Mr Hyland claimed these figures coincide with a period where Minister of State Séan Canney met with the RSA leadership in the Department of Transport, giving a deadline to the RSA to return in two weeks with "sustainable proposals to improve driving test wait times".
The IRHA has called on Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien to remove the driver testing system from the RSA "before any more damage to the Irish economy is done".
"The RSA know that the car testing figures are what will garner more media and political focus. That is why they moved their resources there, at the expense of the commercial driving sector.
"They just moved the driving test crisis from cars to commercial vehicles, leading to severe backlogs in the testing system for bus, HGV and truck drivers," he said.
"These are the drivers we need to bring tourists around, deliver goods and keep our economy running. The RSA have learned nothing in the past six months and have demonstrated that their organisation is clearly not fit for purpose."
