SteeringWheelWinter2022 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 4
Judge by ability, not disability
Winter 2022
CEO Report
We are pleased to produce our second digital version of Steering Wheel and
our first in 2022. Steering Wheel gives us the opportunity to reflect back and
look forward. The year almost at an end, 2022, was almost the proverbial year
of two halves.
At the start of the
year, the pandemic
still dominated affairs.
For example, we had
hoped to bring our AGM
forward to its more
traditional dates in
April or May, but while
we were anxious to
have a live event, there
were still sufficient
concerns in terms of
our vulnerable (in many cases) population to
postpone again until the Autumn. By Autumn, the
directors felt confident enough to proceed with
a live event, which was also streamed for the first
time, and we were able to resume our traditional
morning session of seminars.
The results financially for 2021 were surprisingly
good but buoyed by a bumper return on
investments, which disguised a deficit in relation
to activities. This was somewhat reminiscent of
the late 90’s and early 2000’s where investment
income was a major support to current activities.
The pattern was similar with parking permit
demand. In 2021, we issued the lowest number
of permits since 2016 and the pattern for the first
six months of 2022 indicated that the year was
going to be similar. That all changed in August
as demand exploded. Up to that point, we were
dealing with on average 500 applications per
week and we had consequently not replaced
some staff who had left or moved to reduced
hours. For 3/4 weeks in August, we received
1000 applications every week; many postponed
4
renewals from 2020 and 2021 but predominantly
new applications. This had an immediate effect
on the time taken to process applications.
While the spike has abated somewhat, we still
continue to receive 600 - 700 applications per
week, but we have improved our capacity by
50% + and processing in excess of that number
now. Processing times are beginning to return
to normal. As it turns out, we have gone from
being on course to issue the lowest number of
permits since 2016 in July to in early December
issuing the most permits in one year ever. I
sincerely apologise to all the many who were
severely inconvenienced during this period
and the frustration involved in making contact.
Unfortunately, once delays begin to grow, the
volume of calls and emails begins to grow, and
choices have to be made between resources
for processing applications and resources for
communications. We had two people dedicated
to our incoming calls and one to email (100 + per
day) throughout the period. A fourth was making
outgoing calls. As many organisations have
found out finding additional competent staff is
not done quickly. One innovation that has helped
with the increased demand has been or newly
opened online portal of which there is more
detailed information elsewhere in this.
We were very pleased to have made tentative
steps at restoring our involvement in Driving
Assessment and Tuition services, with our
resumption of driving assessments for those who
are affected by a disability that might impact their
ability to drive. We conducted assessments in
November and more are planned in December.