HONOLULU — The City and County of Honolulu’s new rules aim to cut down on the months-long wait time for prospective drivers scheduling behind-the-wheel road tests for a Hawaii driver’s license. Those who fail to show up for scheduled road test appointments to obtain a driver’s license will face new penalties starting May 16.

No-shows for road tests will be barred from scheduling another appointment for 14 days and will lose the $8 deposit they were required to pre-pay for a road test. To avoid the penalty, an appointment will need to be rescheduled by 6 a.m. on the day of the scheduled road test.

For the week of May 2, 2022, five driver licensing centers offering road tests — in Kapolei, Koolau, Sheridan, Wahiawa and Waianae — experienced an overall count of 155 no-shows out of 937 scheduled tests.

The high no-show rate has been a significant factor in the wait time for prospective drivers to get an appointment to take the behind-the-wheel test for a license — an average of about four months.

“We expect the new no-show procedure to help cut in half the wait for a road test appointment,” said Kim Hashiro, in a news release. Hashiro is the director designate of the city’s Department of Customer Services. “In the meantime, we are appealing to residents to be courteous and cancel road test appointments they don’t need to allow us to better meet demand for this service.”

Road test applicants should arrive at least 30 minutes prior to their scheduled time. If they are more than five minutes late, they will be considered a no-show and be penalized.

Road tests can be scheduled online.

Sarah Yamanaka is a digital journalist for Spectrum News Hawaii. Read more of her stories here.