Driving test booking

[TeenToTwenties]

Just watched an article on BBC1 about bots booking up driving tests and selling them on.

Isn't the obvious solution to book a slot with a provisional driving licence number and the test has to be taken by that person or 3lse cancelled?

That would be easy to program wouldn't it?

That's how it works already.

You can only book with a driver number and a valid theory test for that date

For someone else to take the test, there are two ways:

Firstly, cancel the test and someone else grabs the slot (if you are quick you can do this between two tests you have access to, but is down to speed and luck)

Secondly, if you are registered as a company that can book tests, you can swap the details of two tests you have booked for different drivers. That is probably the route that people reselling commercially use. But for it to work they have to have access to some valid driver numbers to get an initial bank of tests they can then swap out into.

So do they need to double down on what companies can book tests? The current situation seems crazy!
My DD will hopefully learn to drive not too far in the future (already delayed) so having to book a test before ready or otherwise wait months is a poor choice of options.

One of mine has passed the theory test and currently take lessons but is nowhere near ready. Have heard its months of waiting before you can get a test.

It must be self perpetuating too.
Because there is a long lead time, people book a long way ahead, which makes a long lead time, so ....

At most test centres the official 'wait' will be 6 months basically. Test dates are released usually a week at a time on a Monday. So anyone having trouble getting a test booked should look at 6am on a Monday which is when the system opens in the morning.

The pressure on test slots will get less over winter, it always does, but will never be brilliant.

The DVSA has done various things to clamp down on dodgy behaviour that was going on post-covid. I don't fully understand how the system was being abused (because as I said above, you need to have a valid driver number and theory test to book a test and only one date can be held for a given driver number) - to do iffy things on a commercial scale you would have to get access to a lot of valid driver numbers somehow (the most obvious ways would be a data leak of some kind or some kind of phishing type scam to harvest numbers).

I believe that it is pretty hard to really abuse the system now - so the delays are really simply a reflection of supply and demand.

What's really strange is that the number of no shows for tests is incredibly high. It's not unusual for me to chat to examiners and they've had several no shows on one day - I don't know what the official rate is nationally but it has a significant effect on test availabiliy.

My son has passed theory, ready to book practical but fully booked until January.

Agree that only instructors should be able to book tests for named individuals. Booking before you are ready clogs up the system for those that are. And these broker systems are insane.

Going to cost us a fortune

(if you are quick you can do this between two tests you have access to, but is down to speed and luck)
Actually you can do this through the DVSA. Find someone to swap with, and call the DVSA and ask them to swap your tests over. You do need all the details (licence number, booking number, name, address, etc) but it's a really simple process. DD found someone to swap with via our town's Facebook page and it worked a treat.

It depends on which test centre you use (some are less booked up than others) and whether there are any cancellations available. It's definitely still a 6 month wait in my town.

How often do you check the website? Someone on the news this morning was banned for checking too much as they thought she was a bot ffs

Our local area (pop around 60k) has two test centres - one has one test a week, the other two a day during the week. Not sure if it's a lack of examiners or a lack of will/money for more availability.

Waiting times for testS are currently about 4-5 months. Getting a theory test is a wait of around 6-8 weeks.

Driving lessons are between 60-90 minutes. The powers that be (not sure who runs the examination process) apparently say the solution is to use two further out driving test centres (one a 60 minute round trip, the other a 80 minute round trip, on a good day )... And extend the lessons to 2 hrs... Which isn't really a solution ...

I doubt she was banned. If you check too many times, you do have to clear your cache or it won't let you log in but that's not the same as being banned!!!

Our local test centre had a wait for tests for over six months. We went to a local company who offer intensive lessons with a test on the last day. They have access to a database for cancellations etc and got a test for us within 3 months.

My daughter passed last year and fortunately had an excellent driving instructor who was very proactive in finding tests / swapping tests for her clients who needed one . Locally many driving instructors are in a group specifically for this purpose . We had absolutely no luck with Testi or the other apps for getting quick tests .

Sorry to read of all the difficulties you are facing.

The DVSA seems to be for various reasons to be a failing organisation.

I'm setting off to my mothers two hundred miles away tomorrow for my dd to do an intensive course and then her test because our test centre, which already had a three month wait, has closed down putting further pressure on the other two centres in the city.

Dd has been learning to drive since December and we can't keep going like this, having lessons for months and months.

We're in London and the waiting times for tests was ridiculous a couple of years ago. We ended up booking one about 200 miles away, getting the testi app and then changing it to a local one when it came up.

I don't think they should change it to only instructors being able to book as my DD didn't use an instructor for her test. We paid for a few lessons but mainly took her out driving ourselves when she'd got the hang of it.

It’s a nightmare trying to book a practical test at the moment.
I had a test booked for June (booked in February and it was the closest test available) but due to a family emergency I had to cancel it.
I then spent 2 weeks checking the website numerous times a day, everyday, at random times and finally I’ve managed to book the next available one for the end of December.
cancellations do randomly come up apparently, but because tests are like gold dust people aren’t cancelling unless they absolutely have too - because god knows when they’ll get another slot!

It’s absolutely absurd that companies are allowed to book up slots, I don’t know a way round stopping them booking them up (as you do need a license number etc to book) but surely it needs to be looked into.

The thing with only instructors booking means people like my son who have had a year or more of weekly lessons and are now only practising in their own car and will take the test in their own car would not be able to book at all.
I do think that tests should only be allowed to be taken by the person with the driving licence number that matched the original booking.

The companies that book are often intensive driving courses. I did my motorbike test at one. I started learning o the Monday morning, had my CBT by that afternoon and took my test on the Friday afternoon.

The only way to offer intensive courses is for them to be able to book slots.

Yep, my DD didn't pass her first booked driving test that was beginning of August (booked in April) so rebooked and it was the end of December originally.

I downloaded an app for £20 and it has now managed to move the test to the beginning of November and is still searching.

The cost for lessons is ridiculous as Instructors are doubling up = £74 a week and my DD's is off for Summer!

£1800 so far and counting.

Motorbike tests are different. Registered instructors can book tests without candidate details and then fill in details later (I think something like up to a week or two before the test). So is easy for them to operate like this (and HGVs are the same). Car intensive courses can't work this way as we can only book tests with candidate details.

Usually with car courses there are two ways it is done:

Either book a test (then if possible get an earlier cancellation) and then arrange teaching around that date. This is works but can be a total pain for instructors (and is why I have moved away from doing intensives for the most part - just too hard administratively and ends up leaving diary gaps etc.(

Or, do the teaching without an appropriate date and then do the test later. There are plenty of fairly cowboy operatives out there who will do variations on this approach (usually without explaining), either not giving a toss at all about when the test will be, or trying to spin that they can get a cancellation and then not giving a toss when they don't.

@FedUpMumof10YO wrote: "The cost for lessons is ridiculous as Instructors are doubling up = £74 a week and my DD's is off for Summer"

I have always taught 2 hour lessons for non-intensive students - many instructors always do either 1.5 or 2 hours as in many locations 1 hour either isn't enough to spend time around the test centre or simply because longer lessons are a more efficient way to learn. (and I did 2 hour lessons back thirty mumble mumble years ago when I learned for the same reasons - feeling old this morning).

In my area for example, although the test centre is in the same town, for many of my students that still means about 25-30 mins drive. So 1 hour lessons would mean no time spent on roads that could come up on test. In theory that shouldn't matter - you should learn to drive rather than learn the test roads - but in reality for inexperienced drivers you want to try and stack the odds in their favour.

But if clients are worried about costs I always recommend longer lessons but less frequently. Can be a bit of a pain with the diary, but I can usually fill smaller gaps with bits and pieces (extra lessons for a pupil coming up to a test for example)

I looked into an intensive course for DS, but it seemed a con compared to when I was learning - back then you booked a week with a guarantee test at the end.
Now it seems you can book a week of lessons very quickly with no guarantee of a test or you book a test and week of lessons but months in advance - which we can’t do as he is starting university and we don’t know his timetable.