Driving test cancellations 🤯

[pasanda]

How on earth does anyone get a cancellation!! Without spending a fortune on apps etc. I could cry for my dd who failed her test at the beginning of May and now has a test in November! I could cry for me too as I have to drive her EVERYWHERE! 😩

I feel her pain- it took me 4 weeks of trying to even book a test, which is on 03/11. My instructor informed me the government website releases cancellations at 6am on Friday mornings. Frustratingly I have never got one though.
I got an email from the DVLA wanting me to fill out a questionnaire to try and prohibit 3rd party sellers from being able to resell tests, but it doesn’t close until the end of July, so I can’t see any changes happening promptly. Fingers crossed your daughter has better luck.

I have been told that new tests are released at 6am every Monday morning??
it’s just a head fuck! 😩

I used an app which notified me of some sooner slots. Once they were released they were booked in an instant so they are only good if you can use your phone quickly.

The number of people selling slots for £400+ are making a difficult process impossible.

New slots are 6am on Mondays but they will be later than the slot that you currently have.

DD had one or two lessons, did the theory then booked test for five-six months time (got onto system at 6am) then had to learn to drive in that time.

Yes that’s what she did but unfortunately failed. Now has to wait a further 6 months unless a cancellation come up

I just logged on everyday, and always managed to move it forward! Took quite a few logins but it worked.

I booked the soonest test I could get then used an app called driving test genie or something like that. Cost me a tenner. Whenever a cancellation came up that was a bit sooner it booked it for me and cancelled the previous one. I think it took maybe a couple of weeks to get a test booked.

We used an app with a one-off fee of about a tenner, recommended by DS's instructor. I think it was Testi but I'll check with my DS. There were quite a few short-notice cancellations for early-morning slots, but you have to be seriously quick to bag them when they pop up.

This. Having been through this recently with two DC’s, constantly going on the website is the way to do it. Neither paid extra/ had the app, just logged in when they could.

I spent 4 days obsessively refreshing the booking site, but got a cancellation eventually (after a couple of times being kicked out for being a bot!)

I think it’s the frustration that no matter how quick I click on a test (like I’m literally on the app when they pop up) plus having all her details auto populated, it’s still not quick enough 😔

Yes, they do issue new, unbooked tests then. However cancellation test are reissued at 6 am on a Friday mornings so that learners can rebook them.

That’s exactly what I have done with mine. Booked her test whilst she learns to drive as it’s 5 months later she’s had 4 lessons then it’s been booked. Seems to be the only way. I think the instructors are also not helping the situation asking learners to only book when they deem them ready to pass, one of friends has been ready test booked for 5 months and spends every day waiting for cancellations she’s moved her slot 2/3 times with earlier cancellations and will continue to do so as she’s ready and waiting. Had the instructor told her when she’s was “on track” she could have booked and been ready at a similar point to the original test.. and not now been messing with cancellations. The instructors should help the learners taking away the need for anyone to pay extortionate prices..

Can I ask how you book a cancellation? When I went in to look for cancellation slots it said I couldn’t go any further as I already had a test booked. Am I doing something wrong?

I was told to book a test at 6am on a Monday, tried and failed for several weeks. A friend then told me to just keep going on the website periodically during the day, took me one days of logging in every 20 / 30 mins and I eventually got one:

The cost of the app was less than half a lesson so it’s a no brainier, I used it with both DC who failed multiple times due to anxiety

Each time I booked a distant test anywhere then told the app where I really wanted and my minimum time of notice. We usually managed to rebook within days and the longest we waited for retest was six weeks

why quibble about £30 when 6 months of driving lessons is well over a thousand pounds. You can’t beat this system sadly so learn how to play it

If everyone booked when they were ready we wouldn't have this problem.
DD was a bit reluctant to be up at 6am to book the test but my attitude is if they are mature enough to learn to drive then they are mature enough to sort out their own test.

Cancellations happen all day not just at 6am on a certain day. I just kept refreshing the website page constantly....so much so that I kept getting kicked off for an hour sometimes. I managed to book DDs this way

Yes I keep getting booted off the gov site for trying too hard 😂

I didn’t realise cancellations were released on a Friday morning tbf. I will try this too. I’m usually up at this ungodly hour anyway due to peri!!

I think what happens is the new slots are released at 6 am Monday, and people that already have test slots booked for earlier dates that don't feel ready for them, then pick up the new later slots thus leaving earlier slots available. I managed to get a slot 2 months earlier than the one I had by getting online at 6 am Monday. I had also paid for one of the apps and that was a waste of time IMO, I was never offered an earlier slot that way. It's a really crap system at the moment.

My ds got his changed through his driving instructor- there’s a local Facebook page for instructors where they swap tests if their pupil isn’t ready or can’t make one that’s booked. He got one two months earlier than originally booked but this was then cancelled by the DVSA and a date given for a month later. Ds then downloaded testi and a flurry of dates popped up a few days later so he now has one even earlier than the one that was cancelled.

I don't understand how the third-party resellers work. Do you book a test without providing a licence number, and then you can pass on the slot to someone else? If so it should be simple for the DVLA to crack down on this by requiring valid provisional licence numbers at the time of booking.

Pretty sure you can only have one test booked. The apps cancel the other test to book the cancellation

I think they amend their booking at an agreed time and you get to grab that slot from them as it will be released. (Ie you swap slots with them )