How much does an Occupational Therapist Driving assessment cost?
The full assessment, for a private client costs $500 for the Newcastle area. I charge additional amounts for travel to Central Coast and Sydney areas. The cost includes:
- Contact with client and/or family member and arrangements for assessment
- Liason with rehab-qualified Driving Instructor
- Licence status check with RMS Medical Unit
- Notification to referring Doctor and request for referral and Health History if not already received
- Full offroad assessment (2 hours)
- Onroad assessment (1 hour)
- Completion of report to client, RMS and referring Doctor
- Post-assessment call to referring Doctor if required.
This cost does not include Driving Instructor fees. This is $130 for Driving Instructor’s time and use of his vehicle for the hour.
Please note that additional travel will incur additional costs for both.
Insurers also pay a different rate.
Why do you I have to do the On-road assessment in the Driving Instructor’s car? Why can’t I take my own car?
For safety reasons.
Without putting too fine a point on it, occasionally things get a bit “rugged” when I am assessing someone’s practical driving skills.
The job of the Driving Instructor is to keep us all safe. This enables me to concentrate fully on properly assessing the driver.
It is also Best Practice to separate the OT and Driver Instructor functions.
Why do you come to my house for the assessment?
It’s always easier for the person if I come to their home. It also means I am giving them every chance to succeed as we will be driving around their local area, which is most familiar to them. I can also see how they approach driving conditions they will come across most frequently and how they self-navigate to destinations.
Will I be able to choose an automatic car for my assessment?
Yes – David has manual and automatic cars. I generally recommend that clients do the assessment in the automatic, as it is easier for them and there are less variables to consider.