Driving test backlog ‘cannot get much worse’ as average waiting time reaches 22 weeks

20 comments

1. I don’t understand what’s happening to this country.

   We’ll just have idiot kids driving without a license.

   If people WANT to follow the law why are we stopping them?

2. Because 6 months is the furthest ahead you can actually book, if they extended that they’d see that the backlog is actually quite a bit longer

3. Yet people on reddit will still insist retesting everyone every 10 years is a good idea.

4. I literally can’t book a test because I’m trying to book an automatic to manual conversion and it can only be done over the phone. By the time I get through to someone on a phone, all the spots have already been taken by people using the website. I’ve been calling every Monday at 6am for 4 months, I then try to call at random times every other day when I have time to call, but nothing. I’ve given up, and instead I’m putting money aside so I can upgrade to an automatic car. The amount of time I’ve wasted practicing driving manual, and trying to book the test is just depressing.

5. A lot of it is artificial. Developers have worked out how to bot the system and take all the slots and then sell you can app to get access to the slots.

6. Perhaps it’s time to take up cycling instead? Particularly in big cities like Manchester.

7. The bot problem has been known about publicly for years, and the “consultation” for a “plan” to address this only closed last week.

   The gears of the public sector do indeed turn slowly.

8. “This featured a plan aimed at stopping bots mass-booking new slots so they can be resold on the black market for inflated prices.”

   And they wonder how the situation arose in the first place 🙄

9. This will continue to be a problem until DVSA only allow personal applicants to make applications for a driving test. As they allow bots, these are booking all the test slots and then selling them off at a profit. This is profiteering, pure and simple.

10. People are going to start timing out their theory tests, and we’ll be seeing a backlog there too, if this carries on

11. Stop letting bots book tests and introduce a deposit that is refunded if you arrive to the appointment.

12. 22 weeks would be one thing but whenever I go on the website there’s simply nothing to book, not 6 months, not 2 years, just ‘sorry there’s no tests at this time, try again later’

13. Wtf. It’s so easy in the USA to get a driving test lol. UK seems a bit backwards sometimes.

14. Do you still get your driving test free in the army?

15. They need to go back to a non-digital method. Phoning your local test centre and then having a method for registered instructors booking and banning those who take the piss.

16. Trying to get a test in Essex if anyone wants to swap for Herne Bay.

17. Sold my motorbike at the start of the year with the intention of getting my driving licence and a car. Half a year later I’ve given up on booking a test and am now looking at new motorbikes. Turns out you can get a *lot* of nice bikes for the price of driving lessons and a 10-year-old Honda with 100k miles.

    I’m fortunate in that I can use public transport when I go into the office, but given how useless public transport is for many commutes this feels like a very real barrier to growth and social mobility that should be straightforward to solve with a modest investment. We don’t do that here, though.

18. Currently in training to be a driving instructor. Whilst “resellers” of tests are a major issue (Im shocked they could do this in the first place), I can tell you the main reason why there’s a backlog – no one wants the job to conduct these tests. The pay is notoriously low for the experience you’d need. Any driving instructor going into that role would be taking a pay cut. Why would they do that?

    Ok top of that, they need to employ more people. But they are not.

19. DVLA can stop reselling driving test slots. Sometimes the fix is simple.

20. As someone stuck in this situation, it is hell.
    I’m 25, am fully competent to drive, but I have months and months of waiting for a test, that is after already waiting damn near a year for the lessons. Since Covid I was waiting a year or two for the backlog to die down, but it never did…

Comments are closed.