Driving Test unavailability

[wildfellhall]

AIBU to expect my son to be able to book a driving test?

I can't tell you how much of a grim time he had over Covid and after. He took tests in areas he didn't know and now, 2 theory tests later and he can't get a test in his local area. Now he's working full time it's even harder.

Why is the system so completely inadequate?

Is it true that people are booking tests to sell on? That can't be true surely?

My niece did an intensive course with a test at the end so I assume some companies are allowed to block book lessons?

How does this support a modern economy - it's baffling. Why can't the government intervene to improve the situation? We are so dependent on cars and public transport is inadequate. Is everyone who gets a test doing something which we don't know how to do?

Should we just tell him to give up? He has spent a fortune on lessons and now drives really well. What are our options?

OP if you live near Preston I can suggest trying there. Dd passed this week, sat her theory in early October then booked this week as half term, she had a choice of slots and I was really surprised. She could have booked a few weeks earlier tbh. No wait no app. Learning since August with weekly lessons and as her instructor said very test ready with 6 months of weekly lessons and practice with me. Don't get me started on trying to insure her now though!

I passed my test many years ago, so I'm sure the process has changed now. But my driving instructor used to occasionally take me to a quaint little town just outside the city, to do the odd lesson. This was because the village test centre was usually quiet and had plenty of available tests when you needed to book. Maybe your son could do something similar, if the the main test centres are always booked up.

I paid for 2 premium apps, Testi and Driving Test Now and never got a single test from them. It's a shit situation.

However I've managed to get 3 tests in the space of a couple of months which I've moved back a few times so I could take it within 2 weeks of finding one. I used the Google Chrome extension that someone created https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnerDriverUK/s/62yeQxpANe This is a step by step guide, it's called DVSA Booking Helper, it's free and works well (I gave the person who made it a donation though as it's been so brilliant). It basically runs the searches for you repeatedly, using random timing patterns so the DVSA don't block your IP so much. It grabs the cancellation immediately and holds it for you for 15 mins when it finds one. You do get locked out every so often but just follow the steps and you get back in soon to search some more. You need to run it on a computer and babysit it basically while doing something else, it's only ever taken me days to find a test with this and sometimes I can get one within a couple of hours.

So I really recommend it. If it's a mega busy test centre in the South East results may vary, but give it a go.

Ds2 booked a test in a city about an hour and a half away. He then checked in regularly for cancellations nearer to home.
He ended up in a small town test centre an hour away, so we booked a hotel for the night before and spent the previous day driving potential test routes- we had a test route app.

We found testi didn't work well for us.

Practically all test centres have longish waits . My daughter took her test(s) in 2023 and the only way we could get a test was through our very good driving instructor who would swap with other instructors . We had Testi but it never worked for us in the SE as the demand was ridiculous .

Testi was great for DD1 2 years ago, but didn't work for DD2 who passed in Dec. Instead, I spent 3 days obsessively refreshing the DVSA site looking for cancellations. I did get blocked a couple of times, but eventually it paid off and I got a cancellation slot.

My DN did a 19 hour intensive course that had a test ready booked at the end. Only waited a week to get on the course. Faster and cheaper than keep paying for lessons while waiting ages and the instructor maybe not having availability

It's so baffling that there is no way of creating a fairer system. The learners who suffered most in covid are now doubly penalized as their theory tests run out.
I'm so shocked at the unfairness of it.

Did you try this morning? It was all booked up by 7 here- unless I wanted to go to the IoW. I think the pressure is enough without paying a ferry and having seasickness!

I’m not sure it’s unfair though - everyone is in the same boat. Either you try and snipe a test at 6am, or you use an app and hope that does it for you.

I don’t think you can blame Covid 5 years on either.

FWIW I had three DC pass in the space of a year (post covid). All passed first time, although DD had a test cancelled as her instructors car broke down. We used Testi or just the gov website to book all 4. Most of them were moved to a closer date using Testi. We got tests between 3 weeks and 3 months away that way.

So what have you decided. You've started a thread saying ds is distraught, but you actually haven't investigated at all, or done anything at all. I read up on it all extensively, tried and tried the gov website at 6am, didn't have any luck, so used an app. I just got on with it. I'm about the start the whole process with ds2.

I tried today at 6 and two tests came up and were gone the minute I clicked on them.

I object to having to put all this personal data into an app run by who knows who when the gov are actively asking us not to use them and are also actively trying to undermine their success.

Well done you by the way; you have succeeded where I have failed.

But I can't use the app until I have a test and I haven't got a test yet to even start that process as it appears I have to ignore the government guidelines which I'm not used to doing.

It really is a joke. Apparently they’ve got more examiners recruited but it’s still really hard. They are trying to stop those companies taking the slots to sell on but the government tech (as ever) isn’t as sophisticated.

get the app driving test now.

It finds tests for you and automatically books the test for you

When you try the Mon 6am thing make sure you are super prepared as they usually go in the first min. It's like getting concert tickets start hitting the enter button at 5.59am. I set up both my phone and computer and copied my email address or the number ready to go! Sometimes surprisingly my phone worked quicker than the computer.

I don’t think it’s those who were learning and had tests cancelled in Covid that are impacted now, more the backlog this created and has increased since.
My eldest originally had her test booked for April 2020 which was cancelled due to Covid a few times before she passed in October 2020. Ds passed last year, it was a lot more difficult for him to book a test in 2024 than it was in 2020. He also had a test cancelled (by DVSA) with less than 24 hours notice and he failed his first one, we used the free version of Testi to look for cancellations.

There is a big problem with dodgy driving instructors booking a big chunk of dates when they are released then selling them on for 4x the price. They need to do something to prevent this.

I can't see how they're actually 'selling' them unless to each other?

Why not make it that only the learner can book?

I think it’s actually dodgy people at the test centres . In theory all tests are released onto the website but we had an incident where our instructor was told that some extra tests for a few weeks time were being released at x time on x date . We and our instructor were all logged in to get one and none of us managed to even see one on the site let alone book it . It panned out that a ‘new’ instructor in the town had managed to bag four out of 7 for her clients which seemed very fishy to the rest of us . Driving instructors can book tests for their clients but they have to have the driver number and I think there is a limit to how many they can have at a time .

Oh lord have mercy, it's taken ALL DAY and I've finally got a test at the end of July over an hour away 😮‍💨.

So I can now start looking at the apps which the DVSA tell me they're actively trying very hard to block.

I feel psychologically slightly broken by this process. It must be what it's like trying to get Taylor swift tickets.....

From the article linked above :
According to Guardian analysis of DVSA data, as of 2024, the total Covid backlog for Great Britain is more than 1m tests. Since pandemic restrictions ended in 2021, the agency has made available an extra 212,000 tests, meaning that, at the current rate, it will not clear the Covid backlog until 2026.

Scores of driving instructors and examiners left the industry in covid (and it was already understaffed) and clearly haven't returned.

Anyway, this morning I had a notification that the test I'd booked back in September has just been moved back to one the following week. Luckily the driving instructor is still available. Which reminded me that my DDs test was cancelled the night before too. So even when you have an elusive slot, it's not necessarily the end of the story. Our driving instructor says it's happening more and more.

One thing the DVSA are doing is putting some very nice staff that you can speak to with your own voice and they are real people! They are kind of DVSA trauma counselors who listen while you try to find out if there is anything you need to try which you haven't yet. They are quite comforting people. So much preferable to a textbot with a photo.

I get the impression driving examiners have been treated with some contempt for many years and not paid sufficiently well to retain them in adequate numbers.

This plus the Covid hiatus has created a ridiculous demand for a pathetic supply.

What did the passport office do to change their terrible delays?