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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Its unreasonably difficult to book a driving test isn't it?

28 replies

mcmillion · 25/01/2022 22:14

Covid aside (as obviously that will make appointments more scarce), the system for booking a driving test is terrible. It asks "Enter a date you would like", but its not possible to answer "as soon as possible" - you have to specify an actual date..Then you put in your postcode, and it lists centres in distance order. If all the centres reasonably close to you say "No dates found", it means that there are no tests around the date you specified, but it doesn't tell you when the next available date is for each centre. So then you have to use the back button to click back through the pages to the date field and try a later date. Its ridiculous - it would be much better if you could first specify convenient centres, then be told the next available date for each.

Or am I missing something?

OP posts:
PabloSlow · 25/01/2022 22:19

There was something about this on Jeremy Vine's R2 show recently. If I remember rightly, slots open on a Monday morning. They were booking something like 6 months in advance.

LastChristmasIGaveYouMyHeart · 25/01/2022 22:20

You have to book at 6am on Monday morning. This is when new slots are released.

You can also download an app that will find cancellations.

LouLouLou37 · 25/01/2022 22:24

Download the app Testi it costs 10 pounds but it'll notify you of any available tests. That's how I booked my test

Snowiscold · 25/01/2022 22:26

Slots are released every week at 6am. They will be for 12 weeks ahead. You can’t book beyond that time. Best to get one of the apps. They will find a slot for you. DD used drivingtestgenie, but there are others. Well worth it.

Original poster
mcmillion · 25/01/2022 22:34

@LastChristmasIGaveYouMyHeart

You have to book at 6am on Monday morning. This is when new slots are released.

You can also download an app that will find cancellations.

Thanks. The app costs £17.99! But it enables autobooking, which might be the only way to get a slot. How frustrating that the DVSA allows an app to profit from its incompetent website design!
OP posts:
largeprintagathachristie · 25/01/2022 22:37

Yes. It’s an awful, cumbersome, stupid booking system. Just show me when there are slots - don’t make me individually try each date.

Original poster
mcmillion · 25/01/2022 22:38

@Snowiscold

Slots are released every week at 6am. They will be for 12 weeks ahead. You can’t book beyond that time. Best to get one of the apps. They will find a slot for you. DD used drivingtestgenie, but there are others. Well worth it.
Very useful to know, thanks! I've been putting in later and later dates, so I'm now well beyond 6 weeks. The website doesn't warn you about that.

This is for a re-test, so we want it asap, but I will have to get over my resentment of paying for an app.

OP posts:
Original poster
mcmillion · 25/01/2022 22:40

#12:weeks not 6

OP posts:
whatnumber · 25/01/2022 22:48

I agree how awful that people have to buy an app. The private apps are probably run privately by friends of ministers 😡

Original poster
mcmillion · 26/01/2022 10:05

It gets worse. My son's instructor just told me some instructors are bulk-booking tests and selling them on. He's a member of a whatsapp group where someone was offering them for £100 on top of the test fee. How can the dvsa let instructors get away with that?

OP posts:
Original poster
mcmillion · 26/01/2022 14:19

Also, a friend's daughter is a member of a whatsapp group with other students, one of whom seems to be sharing information about tests that are due to appear online as cancellations. I'm reading between the lines on this one because it's 3rd hand info and may be innacurate, but there seems to be a lag between tests being cancelled and them being re-advertised for booking, and somehow he has access to that data. Hmm

OP posts:
HardStareBear · 26/01/2022 17:37

You're right, it's a hopeless system. It couldn't be more user unfriendly if it tried. Luckily, my son's instructor booked his for him, so I didn't have to keep trying.

user68901 · 26/01/2022 17:45

We’ve been through this and it is so badly designed and unhelpful. You can’t use the apps to look for cancellations until you have a test date and are in the system.
My idea when my dd was really struggling was to book one somewhere quiet and remote like north Scotland in order to get a test date for 2/3 months time and then download an app. I think it was about £10 then cross fingers for a cancellation near you .

Ilovemycar77 · 26/01/2022 17:52

Definitely recommend Testi.
I managed to get my son a test at chosen centre then following week to signing up with dvsa and the original date:
Sat for an hour and kept refreshing every minute and they do pop up. Often the notifications can be too late and get snapped up by others. So the constant refreshing was my best way to book

Snowiscold · 26/01/2022 18:03

@user68901

We’ve been through this and it is so badly designed and unhelpful. You can’t use the apps to look for cancellations until you have a test date and are in the system. My idea when my dd was really struggling was to book one somewhere quiet and remote like north Scotland in order to get a test date for 2/3 months time and then download an app. I think it was about £10 then cross fingers for a cancellation near you .
Yes, that is what my DD did- booked a slot in rural Yorkshire, where she had no intention of going - (we live in London). There were no slots to be had at all in the whole 12 weeks in London. So she then used an app to apply for cancellation slots in London. When one came up, you immediately cancel the rural slot. The whole thing is crazy, because you are forced to book slots you don’t want, therefore cluttering up the system more.
Original poster
mcmillion · 26/01/2022 18:03

@Ilovemycar77

Definitely recommend Testi. I managed to get my son a test at chosen centre then following week to signing up with dvsa and the original date: Sat for an hour and kept refreshing every minute and they do pop up. Often the notifications can be too late and get snapped up by others. So the constant refreshing was my best way to book
I've signed up for Testi for £10.95. But now I see there are (more expensive) apps that actually auto-book the test for you. So even if I do get a notification, and act on it immediately, there's a strong chance it will have been auto-booked by someone else in the meantime. Angry
OP posts:
Ilovemycar77 · 26/01/2022 18:09

May explain why I always found the notifications meant you never stood a chance: hence me then spending some time constantly refreshing the page to grab one when it flashed up.

Original poster
mcmillion · 27/01/2022 14:24

I just got my first Testi alert, but many other people must have got it at the same time - there was a virtual queue to log into dvsa and the appointment was gone by the time I got in. I had checked it manually just a few moments before (when there was no queue), so it can't have been there long. It was probably auto-booked by one of the more expensive apps.

So I can see how Testi and similar apps might have been useful when only a few people had them, or perhaps in a remote area, but in London it might be a waste of money now.

It would be so easy for the DVSA to stop the apps - they'd just need to use the "prove you're human" functionality that stops apps from filling in online forms. It pops up occasionally and randomly on the dvsa website, but presumably not often enough to deter the app entrepreneurs.

OP posts:
Original poster
mcmillion · 27/01/2022 14:37

@mcmillion

It gets worse. My son's instructor just told me some instructors are bulk-booking tests and selling them on. He's a member of a whatsapp group where someone was offering them for £100 on top of the test fee. How can the dvsa let instructors get away with that?
Not sure if this is the same guy selling tests at inflated prices, but at least the dvsa/police seem to be taking it seriously and will hopefully deter others: www.google.com/amp/s/www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/driving-instructor-slammed-selling-last-26019706.amp

But even if they don't sell them, from what I can gather, instructors do routinely hold onto multiple tests for learners who aren't yet ready, and swap them with other instructors, rather than releasing them.

OP posts:
Snowiscold · 27/01/2022 15:31

My DD is in London and she took her test just at the end of November. She used drivingtestgenie, which I think was just under £20. It worked well for her, and she doesn’t have full availability to use her phone during the day to check her email (teacher). I don’t think you have to reply immediately - she couldn’t have done so.

Itsalmostanaccessory · 27/01/2022 15:37

Why didnt you just spend £7 more for an app that auto books? You've saved £7 getting the cheaper one but it is still £10 wasted because it is no good. The slots will be gone by the time you get online. You're going to end up spending the £17 anyway to get one that will auto book.

McPie · 27/01/2022 15:55

I hate the system with a passion and really feel for anyone having to book now with covid restrictions!
My test was cancelled 3 days before in October 2019 an the next one available was 12 weeks later! I checked daily and only managed to get one 3 weeks earlier as the local centre took on two new examiners.
It's the same with theory test booking, DN ended up having to travel from Edinburgh to Newcastle as it was the only one she could get booked.

Original poster
mcmillion · 27/01/2022 15:57

@Itsalmostanaccessory

Why didnt you just spend £7 more for an app that auto books? You've saved £7 getting the cheaper one but it is still £10 wasted because it is no good. The slots will be gone by the time you get online. You're going to end up spending the £17 anyway to get one that will auto book.
Because I would first need to invent a time machine. I only spotted the more expensive apps after buying Testi. I'm considering getting a more expensive app, but I resent the injustice of it all and don't really want to join such an exploitative bandwagon. I've also been warned off them because if they auto-book a slot you can't use, by then you've already lost your original slot.
OP posts:
Snowiscold · 27/01/2022 16:25

I've also been warned off them because if they auto-book a slot you can't use, by then you've already lost your original slot.

I’m not sure that’s how they work. Certainly, DD had to cancel her original slot herself when she confirmed she would take the slot the app offered her.

Madickenxx · 27/01/2022 16:30

I know you have already bought an app but "driving test now" worked really well for DD. It auto-books and you can change your appointment several times until you get a date that works for you. It's madness that apps are needed (in fact it's the apps causing the problem) but unfortunately you have to work the system. Good luck!