How to book a driving test when there are no slots available?

[SherlockJones]

We have been trying to book a test for a few weeks and the test centre near us never ever ever has any slots available. We've tried 6am Monday morning and throughout the day. Do the app things work? Which one to try? We are in the south east, outside London and want the test to be at a certain test centre so the learner can practice in that area. I have seen tests in other parts of the country, is it a problem everywhere or just in our area? Suggestions? Do you have to go through all this again if you fail? It's ridiculous.

Go onto the government website and book any test that’s available even if it’s in March . Download Testi or TestShift. We found Test Shift to be far better though it’s more expensive at £17. My son got a test two weeks later and passed 1st time three months after his 17th birthday . I realise it’s feeding into the problem but everyone is doing it and like you , we didn’t fancy paying out £80 a lesson until his original test date of December. We’ve saved about £600 on lessons doing it this way . Good luck .

We logged on around 5.45am Monday morning. It said come back at 6 but kept our place in the queue. We got a test at our local centre.

We logged in at 5.45 this morning, we were 11,281st in the queue. No tests within 30 miles but booked one for March miles and miles away. Not sure if this was the right thing to do. Logging in before 6 didn't seem to help. So we are still having to constantly check the website to try to change the test centre.