To think the government need to pull their fingers out of their backsides with regards to driving tests?

[NotTonightDeidre]

DS has a test booked for the end of October. It was the earliest test we could get after he passed his theory.

He's ready to take his practical test now (has been for a few weeks) but I can't get an earlier test for love nor money!

Except that's a lie - if I'm willing to shell out over the odds or pay to sign up to an app, I might get a test sooner! But, I refuse to become part of the problem.

I've seen several slots come up, but, every time I click to book the slot is taken! No doubt by a goddamn sniper app.

Why are the government allowing this BS to continue? They're quick to block my access to the booking site because I manually refreshed the screen a dozen times, but yet the bots can book multiple slots!!

This won't get better until the powers that be put a stop to unscrupulous companies making a fast profit on selling tests at an inflated rate. And stop the apps.

I get there's a backlog. Recruitment & retention issues with driving instructors. However the lack of action against questionable bookings is only compounding the issue.

If only ranting on mumsnet could expedite the process.

You're right, as many others have pointed out, it's not!

Fwiw, he's at college in the day & at work weekends & holidays.

He does look for cancellations himself, however, he has the same issue i do in not being able to act quickly enough to beat the bots.

We're currently frozen out of the system again for "looking like a bot".

I had no idea there was an issue with this.
I did my driving test 15 years ago, failed it, and had a new one booked for about a month later.
When did it change to apps? It used to be that you just went on the DVLA site and booked a test.

Yep my husband (47) is learning and has his test in September - we are spending a lot of money on lessons to keep up the momentum obviously as we are afraid to leave too long of gaps between them
!

very difficult to take him out to practice with me in the car because we have small kids under 4 and we both work full time so literally after work it’s craziness of baby bath time bedtime !! He a no family near by to help etc if he doesn’t pass in September I don’t know what we will
do as can’t really afford to keep up with the lessons much longer

I think this is one of the biggest problems - the pressure on the candidates (not just kids, those of any age) is huge because they know it's so difficult to get another date.

Back in the day it might be 3-6 weeks at worst. It's also really expensive to have to keep having lessons if you can't get a repeat test.

The other big issue is that you can't book a test unless you have your theory, and the theory runs out really quickly and then you have to do that again. 2 years sounds like a long time but it can go by incredibly fast.

I wonder if they should increase the age for doing a test to 18 to try to clear some of the backlog. But then I worry if that would have unforeseen consequences.

The government should be able to block the bots. Every time I look at certain websites I get blocked by Cloudfare until it's decided I am not a bot, so why can't the DVSA use it?

Also too late now but they should have looked at how other countries were managing tests during covid and copied them, rather than just closing everything down.

Yep.

They say it's because of safety, which is bollox as millions of us are on the road who didn't have to do theory tests (and I did them when my son was learning and I passed - you still had to know it). So the fact that someone is on the road three years after doing a theory test rather than two seems pretty unimportant to me.

I suspect it has more to do with the contracts they have with the private providers...

And this also begs the question of why if the theory tests can be with a private provider the practical can't. But I think they might have recruited more examiners now as they have closed the recruitment programme and I'd have thought if they were still looking they'd keep it open.

At the end of the day it's no skin off the government's nose is it? Why does having more young drivers on the road benefit the country? They want fewer cars on the road.

It’s awful! I’ve been so incensed I’ve actually written to our MP, for all the good it will do.
We now have a test booked about 60 miles away, for January…

They'd better put a lot more money into walking, cycling and public transport then!

They want growth though and for that you need people to be able to get to work and leisure activities.

Mind you there aren't any jobs for youngsters anyway so they've no money to spend, so they don't need to drive for either reason.

I've probably talked myself into thinking you are right :)

And @lanthanum have the best idea. Allow experienced driving instructors to take the examiners courses and do the training. Create part time/ 8hr or 16hr contracts for examining so they can do 1 or 2 days a week or just mornings or just afternoons doing examining and then the rest of the time teaching.

Driving instructor gets to advertise they are an examiner as well as an instructor (meaning they can probably charge more per lesson). More test slots open up meaning the backlog is cleared. Gives a somewhat guaranteed income to instructors during low student periods.

They do also need to do something about the bots that are hoovering up released tests the moment they are released. As someone up thread suggested 1 or 2 slots per driving license.

Just another part of our severely broken society

My youngest passed this summer. I paid for a bot app. Even that took a long time to find a test. If I hadn’t done that, we’d still be waiting with months to go.

They are Civil Servants which is why their pay is so rubbish!

They say they want things that their actions don't support.

It's a dire situation. It took us a year to find a test for my dc within 40 miles. They failed as they'd not driven there before. It's a big city with complicated roundabout systems. Now we're back to square one. They need it for their career. As I understand it, instructors can book them up, they get first priority, then some resell them at a profit. But our town has no tests ever available if you aren't an instructor.

They will not be putting more money into these things.

I had to wait three months for my driving test in 1980.

Absolute madness. This is easily fixable right? It’s something to do with the booking system and resale

Sadly not. Last year from our village to the college most kids go to 16-18 there were 12 buses a day, this year there are 4. And often one of those is cut. The private bus company we think are cutting a needed service as much as they can to ‘persuade’ the council to subsidise it. The local council has a strategy to reduce car use, but it only focuses on town centres, there’s nothing there about villages. Cost of buses is also increasing, when the government introduced the maximum pricing on bus journeys the bus company set that as a flat single rate and stopped selling return tickets. So even if you’re travelling to the next village 3 miles away it’s £6 return on the bus.

There’s no infrastructure to support safe cycling either.

You would think so but it has been like this for a few years now.

DD was ready to take her test before she moved to uni last year. The earliest she could get was April, which they cancelled a few days before as there was no examiner, and the next one she could get was this month. Being away at uni is only complicating things, as she's only home now in holidays, so if she fails it's either Christmas or Easter, almost two years since she was ready to take a test in the first place!

It needs a total overhaul. No wonder so many drive illegally.

Do they still do those intense driving courses with a test at the end of them? Or am I way out of date?

It's really bad. It needs sorting ASAP.