No driving tests AT ALL

[mondaytosunday]

hi I must be doing something wrong. My DD is learning to drive and I was looking to book her a test for September. No joy at our nearest centre (we are in London) so looked at the next nearest four. Then the next then the next. Ok so looked at where she’s at uni for October (up north). Nope. Nothing there in the four or five test centres. So I checked November (DVLA website says you can only book up to 24 weeks in advance). Nothing at any centre anywhere in the next 24 weeks! Surely this can’t be right? I’ve even checked the Isle of Wight!
The company she’s learning through says it’s our responsibility to book it. The only thing I’ve left off the form is her instructor number as that’s optional (and I don’t know what it it). I googled it and it says normal wait is 12-16 weeks for a test so I can’t understand why I’m getting no availability at all. Help! Edited to add she passed her theory last summer so still valid.

I was talking to someone at work about this yesterday, her son is trying to book a test and he's managed to get one moved forward to just a few weeks time with that app so it must work for some people

No - the instructor teaching DS will juggle other lessons to accommodate tests. My older two had lessons cancelled/rearranged for this reason.

I got that email this morning!

To summarise:

Rural roads are dangerous for novice drivers and they are trailing the following three things to better replicate what drivers face in the real world:

During the trial we will be trying 3 changes:
**
reducing the amount of stops during the driving test from four to three
changing the number of tests that include an emergency stop from one in three driving tests to one in seven.
increase the time of the independent driving on the sat nav from 20 minutes currently, to the full duration of the test
You should already cover all of the areas as part of your preparation for your driving test.

It’s only happening at about 20 centres, my one being one of them.

Hope those finding difficulties can get a test date soon.

The system is flawed, the very least should be no one other than the person taking the test able to book. As for examiner's pay, if you increased it, you can recoup through test charges.

This has been the case for several years now so wtf have they not recruited more examiners? It seems like a good part time gig for semi-retired folk, for example. It might be min wage, but so are lots of jobs 🤷‍♀️

Yes - our son who is at uni and we had to have tests when he was home - cost us a fortune paying the robbers who scrape all the cancellations and sell them for about 4x the price

You have to book first thing on a Monday morning when the new test dates are released then download testi its an app that sends notifications when earlier tests come up, I’ve had to use it loads as I failed my test a couple of times, always managed to get new test dates within a week.

I also read in my local FB site (East Sussex) that Merthyr Tydfil is the best place to book your original test before you get the app & find cancellations. It was a Driving Instector who said this had never failed him. It made me laugh because it’s where I’m from.

The only way I managed it was by booking a driving test for a much later date in a random location, Bala I think it was. Then I paid for the ‘Driving Test Now’ app and put in my actual preferred locations and dates. I got a cancellation within a few weeks this way. Good luck!

The refresh button is your best bet OP.
Tedious, but works, especially for cancellations the come on any time.

DD had her December one cancelled and was given June, then they cancelled that (in maybe March) and she was given August.

I don’t know about the Testi app, but on Driving Test Now you can select certain dates and times at certain centres to auto book, and it will notify you if anything comes up at your preferred centres outside of those parameters.

There’s not as many test centres as there used to be, I live South & took me months to get a test, finally got one in December & passed!
The test centres release new booking dates and/or cancellations Mondays & Thursdays at 6am. I saved my drivers number to my phone notes so easily accessible so I could check as much as possible.
would advise booking whatever available slot then continue looking to change to a closer test centre or change date as this is quicker to do than going through the booking system. When I first found a test it took me ages to get through to the payment screen that by time I did the slot had been taken by someone else. I ended up booking for Isle of Wight, then changed to Southampton, then Portsmouth (trying to get closer to where I live) Still had over an hours drive to get to the test centre but definitely worth it.

You have my sympathy. My son tried every Monday morning for weeks and couldn't get an appointment in Oxfordshire or any other surrounding county. He then had to wait 5 months to take his test at 8am in a county 3 hours away. It was a nightmare as he wasn't familiar at all the area so we visited it two weekends on the trot to familiarise him with it. He did pass it the 1st time in less than 30 minutes.

December sounds about right...DS has a test coming up soon but has decided to stick with it. He was going to change the test date but decided not to. Getting in lots of private practice with his own car and a parent instead and hope that will be enough! If not then he will have a long 4 months wait to get another test date.

I remember passing 5th time and I know each time I booked the test was roughly two week's away. So although I passed 5th attempt it didn't take that long in the grand scheme of things. That was over 20 years ago😱

Yes Monday at 6am. Book one then you can check daily for cancellations. Dd had one booked for October but got a cancellation last week (two weeks after booking) and she has passed!

you need to check first thing in morning everyday at your preferred centre

6am monday morning ( a bit before so you are ready).
Book at a centre you actually want because if you have a popular centre, the apps often don't have anything either. Testi has been useless in my area.
Try next week if nothing available.

We used Testi for ds, and it worked a treat. Have to keep checking regularly throughout the day though.

You have to book anywhere in uk then download an app called testy then once u booked u have to enter your preferred location via testy and it will find the location for you . Ridiculous I know but it’s the only way

Goodness thanks for all the advice! Logged on this morning at 5.55am and was almost 5000 in the queue. Got to the front about 6.15 and it was booking for first week in December. So I’ve booked a slot that I know she can’t make as she’ll be up north at uni but now going to get an app to hopefully switch! I did put in the feedback section that it was through a third party (MN) that I found out about 6am Monday releases which I suggested they put on the booking form on the website otherwise how would people know!

Now just gone 7am and all tests for the just released week (first week of December) are fully booked at our nearest and next nearest test centre.

i have booked for dd,
3rd december,
not our local but hope to change it at some point

There is an app called TESTI and another called TEST SHIFT, what you need to do is book nay test anywhere in the future and then set up the app, has she done her theory already? I managed to get one for October in our local test center using the app that’s the soonest and my DS has finished his lessons so now we are just waiting.

Meant to say in testi app you can put to auto move so you don’t have to check.