BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 627
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 20, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
SB 627 (Walters) - As Amended: April 25, 2011
SENATE VOTE : 39-0
SUBJECT : Driving and traffic violator schools
SUMMARY : 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 (TVS) within 30 days of receiving a complete
application.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires DMV to license the owners, operators, and
instructors, including all-terrain vehicle safety instructors,
of both driving schools and TVSs 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.
2)Requires owners and operators must renew their license each
year while instructors must renew their license every three
years.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill was withdrawn from the
Senate Appropriations Committee pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8.
COMMENTS : 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 TVS 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.
According to the Driving School Association of California and
Traffic Safety Consultants, the co-sponsors of this bill, DMV is
frequently unable to renew the license of a driving school or
TVS prior to the license's expiration date even though the
licensee has applied for license renewal weeks, and often
SB 627
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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 sponsors explain 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
(Portantino), Chapter 599, Statutes of 2010, will exacerbate
this problem by requiring DMV to license and regulate online and
other home-study TVS programs, entities that DMV did not
previously have the authority to license. This bill seeks to
provide assurance to licensees that their licenses will be
renewed in a timely manner.
DMV processes approximately 200 renewal applications per year
for driving schools and TVSs. While licensees may apply for
renewal up to 90 days prior to license expiration, DMV actually
mails renewal notices to licensees 45 days in advance of license
expiration. 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.
DMV contends it is very rare for a license renewal application
to not be processed before the expiration date when provided to
the department in a timely manner. Currently, there is not a
backlog for the renewal of licenses, but DMV 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 or
fine a driving school or TVS 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
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school is still operating.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Driving School Association of California, Inc. (sponsor)
Traffic Safety Consultants, Inc. (sponsor)
California Traffic School Association, Inc.
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Howard Posner / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093