To want to know why the government hasn’t sorted out the driving test booking mess yet

[Iwantatest]

You literally can’t book a test thanks to bots and block booking. Go it on at 6 and just put in a 20 000 queue going down very slowly.Even if I was to get on it would be 6 months.

They know bots and block booking are a problem so why aren’t they sorting it?

They're really letting young people down.

They use a theory test over and over that they get from people who don’t want to pass… they probably get paid to take the test and sell the reference

They can’t stop the bots, technically the people setting them up and running these sites are doing nothing illegal, they are offering a service that members of the public are willing to pay for and use and as such they remain profitable do they keep going. If they were pretending to be the DVSA/DVLA and misleading customers then they could be stopped, but they aren’t, they write in the T&Cs and on the websites that they are not part of the official government dept and are charging extra for admin.

I used a service to find a test for my son. They offer cancelled test slots so it was very helpful. It will cost more, but you need to decide if it's worth paying a little more.

So much of the civil service is in disarray after the Tories. The current government started a review of everything when they got in so they will get round to this, but honestly, DSLA is not a priority for all of us. Look at border control, financial control, health, prisons, policing, local government. Do I need to go on? Our country is a mess and I sincerely hope noone ever votes Tory again because noone is being held accountable for where the money has gone, but we all know the rich got massively richer under the tories.

I know the skill of driving is key for young people but public transport for most of us still works OK. I don't know the answer but I do know my first proper job after graduating required a driving licence so appreciate not having a driving licence could be career limiting.

That sums up just about everything about the UK public sector these days, doesn't it? Uselessness, ineptitude, apathy and fiddling while Rome burns, accompanied by lots of performative head scratching and endless talking about how they plan to investigate or reform, instead of actually investigating and reforming swifty and effectively. It just pushes the can further down the road in the hope of making it the next government's problem.

Try 10am today, I managed to get a test around 10am on a Monday as they'd released new timeslots. Worth a try.
Get a test for anywhere in country then try and change it.
Go on the website several times a day, keep refreshing to look for cancellations.
Ime the apps like testi etc no longer work- they alert you if a test you can IMMEDIATELY click on link but it's gone and no longer there.
So just use dvla website, refresh refresh refresh.
It's a complete pita and definitely not for for purpose.
I think part of the issue is driving examiners arent well paid, 26-30k a year, so they make more money as driving instructors so I think recruitment is, also an issue.

Why not just make it impossible to change the driving licence number on a test? They could still allow people to cancel it or change the date/location - wouldn’t that stop bots snapping them all up for resale?

That’s what my DS did. He wasn’t quite ready for his driving test but didn’t want to have to wait six months for another test slot so he took a chance and failed. He ended up having to wait another six months for his second test anyway and the test slot he took up for his first test was wasted. It’s a stupid system.

Absolute rubbish. My dh is a driving instructor and it’s causing a whole heap of problems for them. They have to guess way in advance as to when a pupil may be ready for test as, in the past, they could say with more certainty about a month before that the pupil should book a test. now they’re in the position of a pupil with a booked test and not actually test ready. This causes upset when the pupil is told to move the test as the waiting time is sooo long. Many pupils decide to go to test anyway in their own cars “just to see”. This causes more delays in the system because you have lots of pupils going to a test that they won’t or shouldn’t pass and pupils who are ready can’t get that test slot. This is in addition to these companies that buy up all the driving test slots available. It’s a complete nightmare and I would suggest anyone affected should email their MP and make some noise about it.

It’s a scandal really, and regardless of where it is in their priorities, they have enough MOs for one of them to be given the task to oversee a fix. They are failing young people here.

Can you do this though:

book a test that’s not suitable really
keep looking for a better test
book the better test then cancel the original?

I don’t think you’d be able to book the new test without cancelling the unsuitable one first, can you? Does ANYONE know this?

It’s the lack of information that I find also irritating. People are relying on rumour and hearsay and getting up at 6am and hoping.

You're right of course, and it is because they don't give a shit about young people. No government has for decades. It would be so easy to fix, there's no reason that they haven't, other than they just don't want to.

DS passed his theory in October. The earliest available test ( 5 miles away) is March. His friend is taking his test in Aberdeen this week ( friend is Cheshire based! )Absolutely insanely stupid all of this and so frustrating!

Pretty much.

They could resolve this in a week or two with a couple of developers.

Problem with that is that the theory test only lasts two years.

It's just ridiculous, we didn't have this issue when ds took his test 2 years ago.

DD was ready for her test a few months ago, nearest one we could book was Jan '26 so we paid for the Testi app. Every cancellation would go in seconds. So dd paid for another app and I paid for a third one (costing us about £50 all together). Again, any cancellation that would flag up would go in seconds and if she quickly pressed on it it would buffer and then a message pop up to say the slot had been taken, we were going round in circles.

Her driving instructor has managed to get her a cancellation for next Monday but God knows how long she will have to wait if she fails.

There really are simple solutions to this.

The biggest issue is the reselling companies who are block booking and using bots to book slots.

If reselling was banned then that market dies overnight.

When booking you must enter your driving license number and only that person can take the test, do not allow it to be changed or updated.

If you need to change your slot then you can do so directly with the test centre, you do not swap with someone else you give up the slot you have booked and book a new one.

You will still have a lack of testers and a longer waiting list than most people would like but you have got rid of the resellers overnight.

Have you told your MP? What was their response?

Our teen got up at 5am and managed to get into the queue with 5000 in front of her. Got a test for April. Booking a driving test shouldn't be like booking Taylor Swift tickets!

Absolute tosh. My local MP is trying to sort out the Driving Test shambles & also supports Net Zero.

you’ve been watching too much GB news.

Isn’t that the case now? @WrigglyDonCat (an ADI) seems to suggest that it is.

we have used the same school of motoring for both of our dc. They encourage students to take their theory tests as soon as they can, and then their admin book the tests for each individual. That has been in approximately 6 months time for both of our dc. They then have control of the tests. They brought dc1’s test forward and they passed first time.

dc2 is recovering from breaking his wrist and it looks like he’ll need to have his test pushed back a bit. The school of motoring will sort this - they are big enough that there are other learners who are ready to take their test sooner than their test date.

This seems a very sensible system to me. They have a high first time pass rate too which means that the same learner doesn’t need multiple test slots. I’m not sure why this seems so unusual.

Because most ADI’s are self employed one man / woman band. They don’t have a huge number of pupils at any one time.

I expect the people are DVLA are working to try and fix this but it isn't simple as there are a few different elements to it (as pointed out by other pps) and each need different fixes eg:

1. Bots and resellers: could be fixed by tech upgrades but expensive to do so
2. Lack of instructors who can actually do the tests: recruiting and training them will take 6months or so, probably much longer, and they would have to be on short term contracts as the covid backlog will eventually be dealt with- meaning that people may be less willing to apply as there would be no work for them after a while. The upfront cost of recruitment etc would also be high even though it would pay for itself through more tests after a while
3. People from missing tests/turning up without the tings they need etc: would be quite hard to fix, fines could help but by wasting the money they've paid for a test these people are effectively already paying a fine and clearly that isn't stopping them

Those are just examples. Essentially, these things are a bit of a nightmare to organise!

if it’s possible to book multiple tests on one theory pass number then that’s an easy fix, surely??

I don’t see that round here. It obviously varies a lot.

Couldn’t they club together with other ‘one man bands’ with regards to test bookings to make things run more efficiently? Surely it would help them to keep the flow of students moving.

This ^ too
I googled average salary of a driving instructor and it’s not much.