BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: sb 627
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: walters
VERSION: 4/25/11
Analysis by: Jennifer Gress FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: April 26, 2011
SUBJECT:
License renewal applications for owners, operators, and
instructors of driving schools and traffic violator schools.
DESCRIPTION:
This bill requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to
approve or disapprove a license renewal application for an
owner, operator, or instructor of a driving school or traffic
violator school within 30 days of receiving a complete
application.
ANALYSIS:
A driving school is a business that, for compensation, conducts
instruction in the operation of motor vehicles, including
classroom driver education, in-vehicle driver training, and
correspondence study.
A traffic violator school is a business that, for compensation,
provides instruction in traffic safety, including classroom
traffic violator curricula, for persons referred by a court or
to other persons who elect to attend.
Existing law requires DMV to license the owners, operators, and
instructors, including all-terrain vehicle safety instructors,
of both driving schools and traffic violator schools and
specifies the requirements that must be met to obtain and renew
such a license. All requirements must be met within one year of
application for a license. Owners and operators must renew
their license each year while instructors must renew their
license every three years.
This bill requires DMV to approve or disapprove a license
renewal application for an owner, operator, or instructor of a
driving school or traffic violator school within 30 days of
receiving a complete application.
SB 627 (WALTERS) Page 2
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . According to the sponsors, the Driving School
Association of California, Inc. and Traffic Safety
Consultants, Inc., DMV is frequently unable to renew the
license of a driving school or traffic violator school
licensee prior to the license's expiration date even though
the licensee has applied for license renewal weeks, and often
months, prior to the license expiration date and has met all
renewal requirements. This delay puts licensees in the
position of conducting business in violation of the law
through no fault of their own.
The sponsor explains that conducting business with an invalid
license puts stress and uncertainty on licensees. Under these
situations, licensees call DMV at its Sacramento headquarters
asking when their license will be renewed without receiving
satisfactory response or remedy. Licensees who face this
frustration are fearful of disciplinary action the DMV may
take for conducting business with an expired license. In the
case of a school owner, the owner fears the possible loss of
his or her license to operate, placing the continued
employment of instructors and operators at risk.
The sponsors are concerned that the enactment of AB 2499,
Chapter 599, Statutes of 2010, will exacerbate this problem by
requiring DMV to license and regulate online and other
home-study traffic violator school programs, entities that
heretofore DMV did not have authority to license. This bill
seeks to provide assurance to licensees that their licenses
will be renewed in a timely manner.
2.Current DMV practice . DMV processes approximately 200 renewal
applications per year. It mails renewal notices to licensees
45 days in advance of the license's expiration date. Once a
renewal application is completed, the review of the
application takes about 30 minutes and, for owners and
operators, includes a review of classrooms operated by the
school. DMV notes that many applications received in the mail
are incomplete and postmarked the final week prior to the
license's expiration date. Currently, there is not a backlog
at DMV for the renewal of licenses, but it did experience a
five-day delay at the end of December. With regard to
penalizing owners, operators, and instructors whose license
has expired, DMV does not typically take administrative action
SB 627 (WALTERS) Page 3
or fine a driving school or traffic violator school for the
sole reason of operating with an expired license but will
instead contact the owner when the license has been expired
for 45 days to inquire whether the school is still operating.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
April 20, 2011)
SUPPORT: Driving School Association of California, Inc.
(co-sponsor)
Traffic Safety Consultants, Inc. (co-sponsor)
OPPOSED: None received.