To want to know why the government hasn’t sorted out the driving test booking mess yet

This is being done.
Changes to cancellation and booking

• Tighter booking rules: Restrictions are being put in place to prevent test scams and misuse by individuals and bots, and to ensure instructors only book for pupils they teach.

The issue is not fixing reselling issues. You should be required to enter a valid provisional number or NI number and if cancelling it gets returned to them. No changes allowed.

scanning your documents when booking the test beforehand. And unless a bereavement etc you lose your booking fee when cancelling

Yep. Stop reselling it’s not hard.

Yep so did my niece... her test was booked by her examiner easily, and she passed!!

Reselling should be easy to fix - you just make it that the name booked is the only name can use that booking, so it’s not possible to sell on as the name can’t be changed. You make it that you don’t get a refund if you cancel.

that would be an easy fix and could solve the bot problem. Not sure why something so simple isn’t instigated. Just stop reselling of them, fuck the business model.

Can everyone write to their MP and say “why don’t you stop the reselling?” And make them see it’s a relatively easy win.

I went on at 6 this morning and got in straight away

YADNBU. It's absolutely ridiculous. We shouldn't even be paying for a service this bad!!! If they can't sort it out they should, at the VERY least remove the rule that you have to pass your practical within 2 years of your theory.

My DD is progreywitj her learning really well but we cannot get a test anytime soon. If she fails her first test, which is easily done, she will already be 12 months since passing her theory. And this is entirely because the test system is utterly shit and unfit for purpose.

Please tell me how you booked two tests at the same time. Were you able to do this? Or did you just cancel the original test in the hope that the one you really wanted was still there when you came back to it?

Yanbu it’s ridiculous and surely easy to fix

My teenager is in this position. Passed their theory test in June, got up at 6am on Monday to try and book a practical test. First week they were all gone by the time we got to the front of the queue (all locations within about 200 miles of us!). Second week managed to get a test 100 miles away for January. Then eventually managed to change it for a test at the local center also for January. We have just in the last month been able to bring it foward to december. This was by checking the site about 20 times a day!

We did get the testi app but it didn't help get any cancellations sooner.

For those saying, just have one test per provisional license, that;s what they are doing already. You can't book mulitple pracitcal tests. I have no idea how people are managing to work the system. But something is hideously wrong, and its just the most frustrating thing ever!

Who introduced the driving test booking system we currently have?

Do you know how much it would cost to fix this mess introduced by the Tories?? and its been a mess for years, didn't complain then though did you?

All you ever do is moan and moan.

Fyi the Govt is introducing a whole raft of changes, banning block booking, more examiners, fines for no shows & instructors can only book tests for pupils they teach....

It is crazy. If this problem was happening to a private company, they’d find a way to sort it quickly.

You’d think there are loads of obvious answers - like maybe 70% of slots only available to be booked directly by registered instructors for example, or back to the phone system, or non transferable slots - so they need to be booked on booking in the name of the person doing the test.

As for the government having other priorities right now - but the government isn’t just a few people. It’s the whole machine. There are enough ministers and junior ministers and thousands and thousands of civil servants that this should be the priority for someone.

Agreed. The government should be trying to help all learners equally. Not everyone has thousands of pounds to spend on instructors.

Have done. And have suggested they make tests non transferable too

But this is unfair on people who are not using an instructor. The instructors are controlling all the tests, exactly as you describe, and making it much harder for individuals trying to book their own test.

Not in UK but it sounds terrible. What are "ticking over" lessons ? Can't the mum and dad do that or is that not allowed? It does sound like it could be fixed in a day by a half-decent programmer. How strange that they aren't doing it? It would cost almost nothing. Having had 3 go through getting their licence here I feel your pain though. Our pain is the 120 hour log book that you have to fill out before they can have a test, saying that they have driven 120 hours. Driving Instructors count for more hours and theirs a ridiculous group class that costs a lot but gets you 30 hours - total rort. The rest is up to mum or/and dad. Gosh 120 hours is a long time , especially when you x by 3.

Because once they’ve booked it they have control for all of their learners so can swap and change to use them effectively. They have a large number of instructors in the franchise covering a fairly large area geographically. As I said they seem to have a high first time pass rate so it is an efficient use of the available test slots. Why would you want to make it less efficient?

It took them a couple of weeks to get each of our dc a date after they’d passed their theory tests and they were both about 6 months away. It’s part of the service that they offer and we were very glad of it.

They have been ‘addressing’ it since 2023 and it’s now worse than ever.

Someone on another thread pointed out that they should make it so you can’t change the name on a booked test- either the person who books it takes it or, if they can’t, they cancel it. This would quickly eradicate the bot booking issues, at least until they sort something better out.

Not just letting young people down. Some of us didn’t have parents to pay for lessons we had to wait until we were adults.

I've not read TFT but if everyone who's posted here booked a surgery appointment with their local MP and asked them to raise it, or even wrote a letter to them, it might get things moving. MPs pay attention when things are raised with them, especially if it's a local problem like no local tests.

Easily fixed. One passed theory test allows one practical test to be booked at the nearest centre to the postcode listed on the provisional driving license.

The people doing this are outside the UK so penalties against the seller will be difficult. Proceeding against the purchaser won't pass the public opinion test when HMG seems unable to stop this happening.

How do providers of high demand services such as sporting events or concerts protect themselves from this sort of menace?

They are addressing this. Changes take time UK opens up more driving test slots to help reduce backlog | Automotive industry | The Guardian