Driving Test Delays: Why Learners Are Stuck in the Waiting Lane
Passing the driving test and getting a full licence is a rite of passage for most people yearning for the freedom that driving a car brings. However, the mixed emotions that novice drivers once experienced as they contemplated their test has now, for many, been replaced by a raw sense of dread as they scramble for a test date while, in the background, bogus firms stand ready to exploit the situation at their expense.
What’s happened?
Simply, people are having to wait longer to take their test. Across England and Wales, the average wait is now four and a half months, more than double what it was only five years ago. The maximum waiting time the booking system will allow is five months but even the number of tests with a waiting time this long has recently started to rise.
Why has the waiting time doubled?
In response to the covid pandemic in 2020-21, 850,000 tests were cancelled and only 436,000 were taken. When the cancellation was lifted the following year, 1.5 million tests were taken. This was only as many as had been taken each year since 2007 but the sudden increase put a strain on an already creaky system. In 2022-23, 1.7m tests were taken, an increase caused partly by the covid backlog, by the economy bouncing back and by more people deciding to take their test, a decision which, for some, was prompted by fears of contracting covid on public transport.
What have been the reasons since then?
Many older examiners chose to retire during covid and, despite government pledges, most haven’t been replaced. This is partly because examiners earn, on average, much less than instructors – from around £30,000 compared with £45,000 (some of this paid in cash…). Examiners have gone on strike in recent years over their pay levels, further increasing test waiting times.
Training to be an examiner is a relatively long process, too, and if a candidate fails twice, they must go back to the beginning of the course. This puts off many aspiring examiners. Examining is a stressful job with most examiners claiming to have experienced abuse when failing candidates. It’s why they now wear bodycams.
The DVSA, which operates the driving test, has also blamed bad weather for forcing the cancellation of tests. Other reasons include insufficient numbers of test centres. For example, one centre in Reading is due to close in 2025 but it’s not known where its replacement will be or when it will open.
What have been the effects of the lengthening waiting times?
In a recent parliamentary debate on the subject, MPs shared their constituents’ experiences. They included candidates who had failed their first test and now must wait five months to retake it and others who had driven miles to take their test in a region with shorter waiting times – in one example, 500 miles to Aberdeen.
How are candidates reacting to the longer test waiting times?
The DVSA says that too many are booking their test before they’re ready, so they fail and must retake it, clogging up the system further still. Others suddenly realise they aren’t ready and cancel at the last moment but the slot cannot be taken by another person until the system has cleared the booking, a process that can take days. The DVSA’s Ready to Pass? campaign is designed to encourage candidates to book their test only when they’re ready.
How are unscrupulous operators exploiting the situation?
The pressure to book their test is forcing many candidates into the arms of test-touts who quickly block-book test slots and then advertise them online at double or even triple the official £62 price. During the parliamentary debate,
Peter Swallow MP claimed that within two minutes of his local test centre releasing its test slots, most of them six months away, all had been taken by test touts using bots and fake business accounts to block-book them. He also said that some candidates are paying firms large fees to trawl the DVSA database for cancelled tests. The candidate then arrives at the test, usually unprepared, only to fail.
The RAC says that slots are also being sold via encrypted WhatsApp chats that use the ‘disappearing message’ function so that conversations aren’t traceable. It adds that bogus firms will use a customer’s details to block-book slots in their name with the result that should the customer book a test again but through the DVSA, their application is declined because they have booked too many tests. One candidate had test slots booked 52 times in her name without her knowledge. They were then resold at a premium.
What is the DVSA doing about bogus firms?
Critics claim the DVSA has been too slow to stamp them out and that it should make it impossible to buy a test slot more than once in a three-month period. The DVSA counters that since January 2023, it has issued 313 warnings, 766 suspensions and closed 705 businesses for misuse of its booking service. In addition, it has changed its terms and conditions to block third-party booking services and bots from selling tests at a profit.
What is being done to reduce waiting times?
Last January, the DVSA reported that since October 2023 it had delivered an extra 100,000 of the 150,000 tests it aimed to deliver by March 2024, an increase it achieved by recruiting qualified former examiners from its management and administration teams and asking examiners in areas with lower waiting times to support colleagues in busier areas, steps it continues to take. It is also buying back annual leave from examiners and is attempting to recruit 450 more examiners.
How can I get an earlier test?
Rather than booking your test before you’re ready to take it, consider booking it in an area experiencing lower demand when you are. For example, during the parliamentary debate, it was claimed that in Carlisle, the waiting time is approaching five months but that in nearby Dumfries, the wait is just over one month. Ask your instructor to book your test for you; they can often do it quicker. Take an intensive, one-week driving course with a test pre-booked at the end although it will be stressful.
