Disgusted at the corruption of the DVLA and all the scamming around driving tests

[ManyBooksLittleTime]

Both my children are trying to pass their driving tests. In the area in which we live, and several centres surrounding this, individuals buy up ALL the driving tests using bots to purchase them all. It is impossible to buy your own test. The Instructors, including 'reputable' companies, recommend who to buy the test from. The tests are sold for £160 -500. Then the student is encouraged to pay for an hour driving lesson before the test and use of the car during the test.
My son's last test cost £340 all in and my daughter's £360. She got into the police, but couldn't join as she couldn't pass her test in time! It's soul destroying. AIBU to think that the the government/police should step in? This should be an illegal practice. At the moment the examiners and instructors must be getting massive backhanders and it's very much in the interest if the examiners to just keep failing the students. I'm so angry and frustrated! It just seems like very open corruption.

My son did book ahead and got a test timed for when he was ready. Which was then cancelled by the test centre due to staff illness.

However the next date they offered him was nearly 6 months away, so he's stuck hoping for a cancellation on Testi and there aren't many. He hasn't managed to get one.

Covered in the Guardian last month too:

There's a very simple fix. Currently the provisional licence number can be changed AFTER the booking has been made - this is what is being exploited by the brokers who are block booking. This was originally allowed so that driving instructors could block book tests and assign them to their students. It's being abused so it needs to be stopped. It would be the easiest thing to implement and I can't think why DVSA have not done it.

They need to make people unable to resell their test, and instead say they are only entitled to a refund and then the test offered to someone on the waiting list. It's not necessarily DVLAs or the examiner's or instructors fault, it's the transport ministers responsibility to step in, and ai think she intends on looking at it.

@Almostwelsh Testi isn't much helpful for the reason you spotted - unless you watch for notifications all the time, you tend to miss the chance.

We went for the book a random test method - we live in London and I think DS's original test was somewhere outside Manchester and in 6 months time (or booked as it was released ) - then used speedytests.co.uk which will book for you in a defined window of dates and at up to 3 centres, avoiding the delay in response times. It does mean that you are gambling on your driving instructor having availability to rent his car to you, as it were, but if unlucky, one can just move the test back to somewhere hopeless ages away in time yourself and go round again. Or use your own car if you have a suitable one of course

And yes, the whole thing is ludicrous, and made worse by everyone knowing this and so booking up tests when they are just starting and then failing them.

But would not pay a premium to someone who is somehow stockpiling slots.

This was a fair sized story a month or two ago. Guardian and/or BBC I think.

It's nothing to do with the DVLA at all. It's the DVSA you want.

Same position as you. We live in the south east. My daughter waited ages for a test, unfortunately failed and there is no way for us to get another test, within a few months just nothing around. Her driving instructor doesn’t hold out much hope for her getting a test within the next few months 😢

not to derail the thread, but I feel this is another way the younger generation have been stitched up. I remember failing my test (many moons ago!) and being able to phone up and get a cancellation pretty quickly, everything seems so much harder for youngsters nowadays, re: jobs, housing etc.
It just sucks for them.

But the Tories would have had mates making a buck out of it and you know that was always Tory top priority the past 14 years.

Give instructors a PIN number to facilitate block booking for them on provisional of proving they are a legitimate driving school. Inability to change licence number for everyone else.

This is corruption I agree. Book a test elsewhere. Even if you have to stay overnight at a cheap hotel it would still be cheaper!! Best of luck to your kids. I’d also issue a complaint seeing as it cost your daughter her place in the police!!!

The Guardian article posted upthread is very interested. It seems the resistance to stopping the ability to change the licence details on a test slot after it has been sold is coming from the head of DVSA themselves who comes across as a very dodgy character in the article. I wonder whether they are themselves profiting somehow from this? In which case OP's accusation of corruption may be closer to the truth then I at first thought...

@SlenderRations even if he's right on it as soon as the notifications come up on Testi, the test has been snapped up before he can get it. Not many come up for our area and lots want them. I'll have a look at the website you mentioned. He does have access to a suitable car.

And ofc the pass rate is less than 50%. So the chances are people will have to go through this all over again.

If people don't pay the inflated prices they will stop doing this
I also wouldn't use an instructor who suggested using those services either

Yes, you just need an additional rear view mirror. I would recommend using your own car if you can, it gives more flexibility. We found the Testi app completely useless for our very popular test centre. There is a section of the DVSA website dedicated to short notice cancellations, which is how we got a test in the end.

Agree the whole system is very broken.

From the article:

"The DVSA is resistant to this change because most driving instructors use the test-swapping service responsibly, to trade candidates who aren’t ready for their tests with candidates who are. Yet those benefits are marginal, given the way the system facilitates an exploitative black market. We cannot swap GP appointments, or primary school places, or NHS operations. Why must we be able to switch driving tests?"

The post-Covid test backlog is absolutely ridiculous. I learned to drive 2 years ago, was trying to book my test in early April 2022. I live in Kent, and the closest I was able to get through the legit government booking site, in terms of date and distance, was mid-September in Hinckley - 120 miles away! I had to book it and use one of the paid apps to get a cancellation in my town, but even then it was still early September before I could get a test. Luckily I passed first time, otherwise I dread to think how long I’d have had to wait for a second test!

This was on the Jeremy Vine show last week. It is absolutely shocking and it should be easy enough to shut down.

Why not make it so only licensed driving instructors can book test slots?

Mistletoewench - I feel like this too.My daughter also has to contend with high rental prices too. One bedroom flats start at £1000 a month. Slough isn't even nice! The latest with rentals is that you turn up to view and offer ABOVE the asking rental price, just as people used to when buying.The world is so complicated now.

My daughter has recently passed but it was a difficult process.
Getting lessons was our problem, everyone had at least a year’s waiting list. She had one instructor who then stopped giving lessons, finally found another one.
She booked a test when she started lessons and then moved it until she felt she was ready. Her instructor had been saying she wasn’t ready so she didn’t even tell him- just did it in our car- all we needed was an extra rear view mirror. I took her out for the hour before her test and waited with her. She passed first time.

because some of them are part of the block book and resell problem?

Digimoor - even the AA recommend going through individual scammers here because it's so difficult to get tests. Difficult to he virtuous if you have no choice!

We have had massive issues booking a test and currently have one booked in another town miles away in January. My older child couldn’t get a test so ended up getting one through an anonymous WhatsApp and transferring money to a random account. It was one of many his friends were using. It’s a complete mess and nothing is being done about it.

But that can be monitored and their licenses revoked or whatever if they abuse it. A test should be a fixed price, like an MOT.

This is definitely too much of a logical solution, you know agencies don't like logic!