To be FURIOUS at the DVSA test booking system - DS test cancelled at last minute after being booked for MONTHS!

[SophieFee]

DS passed his theory beginning of July! Earliest test date was the end of November!

Through blood, sweat and tears, via one of these cancellation apps, we managed to get an earlier test (next week)! This has been booked for months! Despite earlier tests pinging up occasionally I was never ‘fastest finger first’ - (which is something you need to be first to book the cancelled spot)!

DS was ready to take his practical at the end of August but due to this shockingly long wait for tests, we just had to go with it!

Today, less than a week before his test was due an email comes through stating that the examiner is now no longer available on that date - next available date early December!

We’re livid, will continue to use the cancellation app but it’s just so frustrating that there’s nothing we can do! It costs hundreds of pounds to learn and then once you’re ready you can’t get a test until months later!!

AIBU to think that the whole DVSA site requires a complete overhaul, where tests cannot be block booked by companies (BBC article I will try and source) therefore, leaving those who are ready not able to get a test for months!!

The instructors need licence details to be able to book a test. Hence why so many people are giving their licence details to random people on FB etc. They can’t do it if the information isn’t given to them. Fair enough if it’s the details for their own pupils. All the apps you can get are just the same.

If the cancellation apps were banned it might run more smoothly like it used to do.

True! Everyone is making out of this it seems.

However, my dc booked their test normally without using an app and got it more or less when they wanted it.

I suppose it can be luck on the day and area you live. When did your dc take their test?

DS test centre is currently booked until 28th Jan 2025!

So the system shouldn’t allow one license number to be used more than once.

It's a disgrace.

I live in Nottingham, so quite a large city. We have three test centres...allegedly. One has not had any tests for a year. It's still showing up on .gov as the nearest to where we live though.

Now the next nearer one had disappeared too. No tests have been released there for three weeks now.

I just couldn't be "livid" and "furious" over having to wait four months. I get that teenagers want to learn to drive but it's not a hospital appointment, is it? Saying that this block booking seems ridiculous and should be illegal - waiting a year is a long time - but if you're using a cancellation app you're presumably contributing to their ongoing success.

You need an app where you can choose dates available and it autobooks any cancellations that pop up, I used Driving Test Now which worked well for me. When I didn't have autobook on I could never get to it in time to book

It's about £70 a week for 2 hr lessons (most instructors where I am only do 2 hr ones) so that's £70 a week for everyone week we were waiting for a test. The next test date where I am currently is 6 months away. I was more annoyed about the money than the waiting, also DSs college was 1.5 hrs on public transport and 15 mins in car so we were really hoping he would pass before starting 2nd year of college, due to the times of the tests he ended up passing very end of Aug so was just in time, he was ready end of May.

Autobook on the same worked for us 1st time, 2nd time there were just no dates coming up on there, the instructor said now and then the apps are blocked from booking the tests.

It doesn’t. Not in the same category anyway (you could have for example a lorry and a motorbike test book at the same time, but not 2 tests of the same type).

YANBU. My DS's was cancelled on the day a few months back, 30 minutes before he was due to set off for his pre driving test lesson. I get there will be times when examiners are ill, but the next test he was given was 7 weeks later, despite already having waited 4 months already. Nothing sooner came up on the app at all.

YANBU. We've had terrible trouble trying to get a test booked for DS. It always said no test slots available for our local test centre.

I booked one elsewhere and then was able to get on the apps and then bizarrely one day loads of tests appeared at our local centre and I managed to nab one.

It's not just 'tedious' or frustrating, it's very stressful. Knowing that you might have to wait months if you failed a test piled the pressure on enormously- and if you did fail, the feeling was so much worse.

Personally I used Driving Test Now which was very good in my area. You have to be OK with it pouncing on a test and booking. You can't wait.

Why is there such an issue then? Lack of examiners?

It’s a mix of a lot of things coming together all at once.

I will tell you about my experience with the DVSA. In 2001 I did my theory test. In those days the validity was 2 years.

A couple of months later I did injure my
right knee. Unable to learn to drive for 15/16 months as angle of knee when using brake and accelerator was extremely painful.

It took about three months to get back to test ready. Booked a test 12 days before my theory certification expired.

On the day of test, got a call to say that the examiner was sick. I believe that they looked at the theory test expiration dates of pupils taking their practical then allocating pupils to examiners.

i was livid! Especially when I was in my final year at uni and went home (130 miles away) to do it. Had to pay and sit theory again - did this at uni city. DVSA wouldn’t let me to have an extension on certificate.

Booked practical as soon as I got my new theory certificate. I knew the test routes at home, not uni. Had to be a Friday as nothing on timetable for Friday. Finished last lecture on Thursday afternoon, went back to student digs picked up bag and got train.

This time I did pass my practical test and didn’t do any driving 6 weeks prior

I feel your pain. My ds had his test cancelled the night before his test was due. He’d had a text a few days before saying if he cancelled less than 3days before he’d lose the fee but it was okay for them to cancel with less than 24 hours notice. So he’s started his new job without being able to drive, mum taxi is knackered.

Exactly!

It’s currently £39 per hour here and that’s the discounted price for block booking 10 lessons. None discounted price is £45 per hour!

We’ve had to pay to continue lessons even though DS is more than ready. Thank goodness for zero % credit cards.

That’s even more awful to have it cancelled on the day!

Same in Ireland unfortunately. Our local test centre isn't offering appointments now and is estimating next available date as May 2025. DS is on a waitlist. He completed his mandatory driving lessons in September, owns his own car, but still has to spend 1.5 hours on a bus to get to work. It would be a 20 minute trip max by car. Ridiculous.

A big reason for the endless frustrations being experienced in some areas is that driving examiners' pay is not allowed to rise with demand in the SE.

The pay of driving examiners is set nationally, more or less, with only small differences allowed for different regions; by contrast, the pay for driving INSTRUCTORS has no national setting and is allowed to rise naturally, being of course much higher in the SE. The result is that we have long waiting lists for rests in the SE, because in this region, you earn a lot more for teaching people to drive than for testing them.

Allowing driving examiners' pay to rise in line with demand and higher living costs in the SE (and presumably making the test cost more in the SE as well) would greatly alleviate the shortage; however, this kind of thing is also politically difficult in the UK, where there is a great dislike of any kind of regional pricing ("Postcode lottery!!"). British supermarkets, for example, generally refrain from pricing things differently in different regions, which is unusual in an international context.

In our area you can’t book a test date at all. You have to pay for it and then they eventually allocate a date. DS paid for his test then a few weeks later was emailed with a date in 3 months time. A month later that was cancelled and given a date for nearly 2 month later, two weeks before he went away to uni. He was so stressed out worried if he failed he’d have to start lessons in uni town etc.
Thankfully he passed and had 2 weeks driving before he left.
But it is stressful and expensive to keep up the driving lessons, his instructor moved him down to one a fortnight for the last couple of months and we did lots of driving with him as luckily we were in a position to.