To ask how the f*ck you are meant to learn to drive these days?

[trapperjohna]

My 19 year old’s test has been cancelled 3 times by the test centre, and that’s post Covid restrictions! It went from December to March to June to August! She’s given up now, has thrown in the towel and is getting rid of her car. She wants to go travelling but was postponing it to get her driving license first (she doesn’t need one for the travelling but she wanted to get it out of the way). She’s sick of waiting. Lessons were a shitshow as well, she got a pisstaker who had her doing left and right turns 8 lessons in even though by this point she was proficient in doing dual carriageways and major roundabouts with her stepdad. She originally got him through a company and he was great but then he went self-employed, upped his prices and seemed to be deliberately not progressing her and started hounding her to book lessons with him. But nobody else had availability.

DD knows of a lad that’s booked a test in some obscure town on the south coast where his grandparents live to get it done ASAP as they had more availability and he’s going to spend the week down there with his grandparents to learn the area and prepare. We are in fucking Liverpool!

DSS is 17 and apparently kids at his college are trying to sell their tests to each other at inflated prices! What is going on?

Not to sound like a nutter, but at this point in starting to wonder if it’s a government conspiracy to combat air pollution!

This happened to me pre-covid so don’t think it’s a covid thing. The instructor kept telling me I wasn’t ready yet a week before my test so I kept having to change the date. I felt ready and I’d covered everything so I think he just wanted more money for lessons.

I sympathise. My DD very similar. Starting learning, stopped due to restrictions. Started again, got a test, test had to be cancelled as instructor caught Covid and she had been with him all week. Went to Uni, got another test via Testi, cancelled because staff shortages at test centre, due to Covid. No more tests before she went back to Uni. Easter, got a test, had another set of driving lessons, (she must have had about 30 now!!), failed.

She is now back at Uni again, and has just lost all motivation. She just isn't enjoying it. The last two years have just been stop/start/aggravations. Driving should be enjoyable, not stressful. I am trying to persuade her to get another test for summer, no further lessons other than with me, and see how we go from there.

Next issue is there are no second hand cars to buy at a reasonable price either.

I don't drive but my partner works in this field. He has people booking tests now for July. We are in Scotland. Sometimes people get cancellations very short notice but others are sitting and passing. Your daughter's situation sounds really crap though.

Currently have 2 DC learning so feel your pain everyone, booked Dc1’s test using one of the apps for July 1st as none were available for months. Driving instructor did say they released tests on Mon and Tuesday morning weekly

I will be using the app for DC2 when they’re ready I preprogrammed it and it auto booked within days so I’m happy it should work for DC2

My DD got her test booked in for August. You nee to go on the booking site at 6am on a Monday morning, that when new slots are released

Scotland is just as bad, where I love the nearest test centre is a small village. Post Covid all the available tests were booked out to be allocated to residents from London to use to help clear the back log, meaning no tests were available here for months. They are still like gold dust now due to the back log although at least local kids can now book them! I sat my test in Blackpool- I did an intensive course with my test the final day. Very cost effective and built my confidence up loads so might be worth a look OP!

The thing is though life never goes to plan, you need to be adaptable and just go with it, not down tools and give up.
I had to change my working shifts from 9.00 am start to 1.00 am start during covid, l am an online picker, our whole team just got on with it, they literally gave us 24 hrs notice. If you are unable to adapt because of life circumstances then your really limiting yourself, this should be a huge learning curve for the young, don' t expect life to go your way, it won' t.

Our local test centre was saved from closure last year and although it was still difficult to get a test, it was possible.

Unfortunately they recently announced that the centre was going to have to close after all as the "landlord hadn't renewed the lease". This news went public with one week's notice! The tests and examiners were all transferred to the next nearest centre, but of course that's in a different town, so cue lots of unhappy learners who suddenly had a test booked in a town they'd never driven in (I know it shouldn't make a difference, but when you're just starting out, being in a familiar area does at least make you feel a bit more comfortable).

Covid definitely has had an impact, but general cost cutting and DVLA delays in processing applications, etc, combined with Covid, has meant that the demand is massively outweighing supply.

This is not even a baby boom year either, 2005 was quite a low birth rate. It really needs to be sorted out before they get to the 2009 births, there will be a lot of 17 year olds that year.

Its absolute madness. My son has been learning for what seems like years, I can't get him a test for love nor money. His theory runs out in November and he has already said he will give up if he has to go through all that again. Every time I try and book a test it just says no availability on that date, you can't even look at a calendar anymore and see what availability they have. So laborious.

My OH is a driving instructor and I often manage his students' tests, very rare for them to be cancelled. I'm in the South West, it could be that your poor daughter just got a wrong 'un who has swapped tests with other students. It's not unknown.

We used the app for £15. Ds1 was just turned 17, taught by us, had a few lessons, got his test booked ages away, so used the app, got one locally really quickly and he passed. Simples.

If you make the effort it's not as complicated as you are making it out to be.

Can your daughter give it a month and try the app that notifies you and autobooks you onto cancellations.
I agree it is awful.

Scotland availability seems to be variable depending on where you are. We are in East Ayrshire and ds turned 17 in Feb 2021. He found an instructor and booked and passed his theory and practical within 8 months of turning 17. He was the first in his year to turn 17, but most others have done it to similar timescales, some easily booked resits within a few weeks too.

He sat his in Cumnock, his driving instructor took him there once the week before to see the area as he didn't have lessons there. His friends have also sat either in Cumnock or Irvine with no massive delays.

The advantage of Cumnock is there are no slip roads and only a couple of roundabouts which are easy/have good visibility, but you do need to be able to drive at 20mph around the housing estates, navigate the confusing town center and confidently drive national speed limit on a narrow back road with no road markings and disintegrating road edges 🤣

My son passed his theory test last week and we used the app to get a test slot on 7th June. He was 17 in November, and will have had about 24 hours of tuition (plus driving with us).

The Testi app is what you need, then you can see slots being released.

He’ll give up because he has to re-sit the theory?
I sympathise with having to, and the cost - but to just give up?
Perhaps mummy needs to stop being the one checking test slots too, another one that needs a kick up the arse!

DD lives in Edinburgh and had to travel to England (Newcastle) to resit her expired theory test, as that was the “nearest” slot available!
Thankfully she has now passed the practical and is driving, but it took ages to get a test date.

I’ve been learning to drive and I agree it’s ridiculous. After paying £80 per two-hour lesson to get to the point where I could take a test, the nearest I could book through the government website was 5 months and 120 miles away. That was the closest available in terms of both date and distance. Luckily I managed to get a cancellation at my local centre 4 and a half months away through an app, but that’s only because I was looking at my phone as the notification came up so I was able to bag it straight away. In the meantime I’m getting in as much practice as I can but DH works during the day and our eldest goes to bed not long after he finishes so I’m pretty much restricted to weekends. I also still have to have the odd paid lesson as I’ll be taking my test in my instructor’s car so I need to still be familiar with it when I sit my test… in four months’ time. The whole thing will have cost me over two grand and that’s assuming I pass first time, which statistically is unlikely as our local centre has just under a 50% pass rate.

How infuriating for her. I know around half a dozen young people who have desperately been trying to learn to drive since late 2019/early 2020 and a few of them STILL have not had a bloody test! Like your DD, a couple of them have bailed, and CBA anymore. I feel grateful that my DC both managed to pass before all this covid shite. One passed Autumn 2018, and one summer 2019. SO CLOSE to all the covid shit.

@trapperjohna I have no way of helping, but do give loads of sympathy, as it must be awful. Covid has affected SO many ordinary everyday things, from schooling/uni experience, to peoples jobs and careers, to having a simple trip abroad, to learning to drive, to getting decent healthcare, to getting an NHS dentist, to getting a passport.

Everything has been affected, and it feels like SOME people/companies etc, are using covid as an excuse to continue to give a shitty service. Life is not what it was 3 short years ago, and this decade is a pile of shit that needs to burn in hell.

Hope your DD manages to get (and pass) a driving test soon.

Meant to say '4 of them have still not had a single test yet and 2 of those, are the 2 who have now given up.'

Driving test have been a shambles - due to the pandemic. The lowest level of young people who can drive now for a generation. Yet another example of how their live have been impacted - as for many learning at 17/18 would have been easier - harder when they are away at university or in a job/training.

I think for some people timings just fell right, but for DD who was 17 in 2020 it has been a shit show. It is not as simple as some have said. There are lots and lots and lots of now 19 year olds still in the system. It would be really interesting to see a table of those who have had their theory pass in the last couple of years, but are yet to have, or pass a test. How about we give them priority 😉

Has she tried the “Testi” app? It’s for swapping test dates, tracking cancellations etc. Worth a go!

If it helps op I'm Liverpool go , I did mine with a crash corse got it over an done with an had no problems (in the pandemic last October) maybe worth doing this or trying different test centres I know a girl who did her test same time as me traveled just for the test x

What looks like conspiracy is often just incompetence

I think I would prefer to believe the world was run by an intelligent race of secret alien lizard people than that it was run by fucking morons who couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery, but it becomes increasingly clear that it isn't 😂