How the heck do you book a driving test in the UK?!

[HollyIvy89]

I am losing the will to live. How an earth does anyone manage to book a driving test in the UK these days.

Yes I hear I can Q up online at 5.30 ready for the 6am release and then I can possibly book a test 5 months away at a location NO WAY near me only to then have to play the cancel game and book something closer. Not actually sure that even makes a difference as surely I’d have to pay for a company who sweep up cancellations to get me one in my chosen location. I have no idea how any of the logic works!

Log on at 5.45 am on Monday. You should find a selection of tests in your area about 20 weeks from now. Then join Facebook groups and hope that you find people who booked their test a while ago but aren't ready and want to swap.

We logged on just before 6 and actually got one booked in the correct local area. Was astonishing. So don’t think it’s impossible!

It’s six months here in London. My DD failed her first test so I managed to get her one in her uni town, but then she couldn’t find an instructor up there. So downloaded Testi (don’t bother, by the time you log on the test will have been taken by a bot unless you live somewhere off the beaten track). So join the bots! I got one if the bot apps and you can put in the exact dates that you would accept. I’ve got every holiday and week she could possibly get back for, though unfortunately it’s a week here and there, not like a whole month. If a test comes up within those dates it will automatically book it then you accept or reject. Cost like £20?
But I will be up this Monday moving her test to August as currently her test is still booked in her uni town. She took her theory in September she’ll have one chance otherwise she’ll have to sit that again!

The bots are what started the huge waiting lists.

As an ADI I log on at 6am on a Monday and there are 100s of tests. We have a special link and login to go directly to different towns so we don’t have wait in the same queue the whole of the UK is in. I book all my pupils tests for them.

Pupils need to get their driving instructor to do it for them.

We also swap tests amongst ourselves so that the pupils that are not ready can have a later date and the pupils are ready sooner can take their test earlier. It’s all free but some cheeky instructors charge a huge admin fee which is morally wrong and unfair on the Pupil but not illegal.

By the spring instructors will no longer allowed to book or swap pupils tests. It’s meant to stop the boys and rogue instructors buying them at the standard £62 and selling them with a hugely inflated price. All it will do is make the wait times longer.

Currently people practicing with family and friends book tests when they aren’t ready (often against their instructors advice), fail and then go back in to the queue making it even longer.

We’ve done this for two years with no tests ever available at our centre. Then an instructor comes on Facebook saying she has 8 tests she’s booked but can’t use but will only swap for later tests at the same centre. This is what needs stopping. It’s so corrupt.