How to book a driving test?
Discussion
My daughter failed her test today which she’s upset about and to book a quick retest is proving impossible. We use the Testi app which is supposed to send through cancellations but it takes ages for anything to come through within 100 miles and it seems you join the back of a very long queue. As soon as dates are released, they get hoovered up, presumably by bots so I guess I’m in part contributing to the problem. Is there an easy way these days to get a test say within a couple of weeks with our chosen test centre or is this just the way it is these days?
Just read national average for wait times is 15 weeks with some areas having a 25 week wait. Seems things have gone backwards since I learned to drive.
Just read national average for wait times is 15 weeks with some areas having a 25 week wait. Seems things have gone backwards since I learned to drive.
Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 22 February 18:44
It’s been an utter disaster since the first Covid lockdown.
What mine did was to book a test anywhere she could get one, and then use an app to look for more local cancellations.
Unless it’s changed, new test dates for +26 weeks are released during the day on Monday, so that’s the best day to keep looking for as local a centre as you can get.
What mine did was to book a test anywhere she could get one, and then use an app to look for more local cancellations.
Unless it’s changed, new test dates for +26 weeks are released during the day on Monday, so that’s the best day to keep looking for as local a centre as you can get.
outnumbered said:
It’s been an utter disaster since the first Covid lockdown.
What mine did was to book a test anywhere she could get one, and then use an app to look for more local cancellations.
Yes that’s what we’ve done. You need to have a test (anywhere) to start getting the cancellations. It’s just rubbish. What mine did was to book a test anywhere she could get one, and then use an app to look for more local cancellations.
My wife recently took - and passed, thank God - her driving test at our local test centre, with about 3 months notice, simply by booking through the DVSA website. She didn't use any test apps.
God knows how she managed it - I believe just by going on the booking website at 6am on a Monday and being incredibly lucky.
She had had one theory test pass (valid for two years, inconveniently starting from February 2020) expire, and was very worried that she would not be able to book and take (let alone pass) another test before her next theory pass expired in February 2024.
The backlog is simply ridiculous. This is partly down to:
a) increased demand from pupils who could not take their tests during lockdowns
b) cancellation apps which auto-book tests the moment they become available
c) something I never knew happened - corrupt driving instructors who block-book tests in return for hard cash from desperate pupils. I have a friend who has paid a driving instructor 100 miles away £200 in exchange for a driving test at his local test centre (RRP £62) on more than one occasion.
See here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/01/learne...
To the OP, I understand your frustration. The best way forward is probably to use a service like https://driving-test-cancellations-now.co.uk/ (I have never used this!) and pay them a not-insignificant amount to auto-book your daughter a test.
God knows how she managed it - I believe just by going on the booking website at 6am on a Monday and being incredibly lucky.
She had had one theory test pass (valid for two years, inconveniently starting from February 2020) expire, and was very worried that she would not be able to book and take (let alone pass) another test before her next theory pass expired in February 2024.
The backlog is simply ridiculous. This is partly down to:
a) increased demand from pupils who could not take their tests during lockdowns
b) cancellation apps which auto-book tests the moment they become available
c) something I never knew happened - corrupt driving instructors who block-book tests in return for hard cash from desperate pupils. I have a friend who has paid a driving instructor 100 miles away £200 in exchange for a driving test at his local test centre (RRP £62) on more than one occasion.
See here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/01/learne...
To the OP, I understand your frustration. The best way forward is probably to use a service like https://driving-test-cancellations-now.co.uk/ (I have never used this!) and pay them a not-insignificant amount to auto-book your daughter a test.
it is bit of a lottery that is for sure.
My youngest will be learning this year, and IIRC when I taught my eldest in 2021, we booked a test, then used the Testi app, to bring the test closer. There are quite a lot of cancellations for Monday mornings, so the first test booked would be 6 months away, then it would gradually get closer and closer. I think we went from 6 months wait, to 2 weeks wait , in about 8 days. And that was at the local centre only.
My youngest will be learning this year, and IIRC when I taught my eldest in 2021, we booked a test, then used the Testi app, to bring the test closer. There are quite a lot of cancellations for Monday mornings, so the first test booked would be 6 months away, then it would gradually get closer and closer. I think we went from 6 months wait, to 2 weeks wait , in about 8 days. And that was at the local centre only.
I was gutted when the tot’s test got cancelled due to snow, but they gave a new date approx 6 weeks later, incl. Christmas, so not too awful.
Originally failed first time and booking the retest was a bit of an ordeal, to say the least.
The issue here seems to be allowing 3rd parties to book tests. An easy fix I’d think, but obviously not in ‘their’ interests.
Originally failed first time and booking the retest was a bit of an ordeal, to say the least.
The issue here seems to be allowing 3rd parties to book tests. An easy fix I’d think, but obviously not in ‘their’ interests.
My boy passed last week.
We booked a test 26 weeks out. They release a weeks worth of tests every Monday morning at 6am.
Then use one of the websites or apps that find you cancellations. We used a site that was £18.
Had a cancellation that brought it forwards to 10 weeks about 2 hours after signing up, but that seems to have been pure luck as I know others who've been waiting for a cancellation for ages.
We booked a test 26 weeks out. They release a weeks worth of tests every Monday morning at 6am.
Then use one of the websites or apps that find you cancellations. We used a site that was £18.
Had a cancellation that brought it forwards to 10 weeks about 2 hours after signing up, but that seems to have been pure luck as I know others who've been waiting for a cancellation for ages.
2 years after this thread was started and the situation has got even worse.
My daughter's first test was cancelled at short notice by the DVSA and she couldn't do the revised test date due to going to Uni. We managed to book one over 100 miles away in a town we'd never been to and she didn't pass (an unfamiliar junction was enough to make an error). Her theory test expires at the end of August and therefore she can't access any new tests being added as they are now in October. We have secured one 120 miles away in August, but between now and then, there is NOTHING in the UK that's available, not even the Shetlands. After searching about 50 test centres, I get blocked by the DVSA website. The apps are no longer effective as there are very few cancellations and will be even fewer now that you can't cancel <10 days away. A year ago, there were 180k tests a month, now it's down to 160k. Any ideas? Northern Ireland? Ireland? Channel Islands? Somewhere in the EU?
My daughter's first test was cancelled at short notice by the DVSA and she couldn't do the revised test date due to going to Uni. We managed to book one over 100 miles away in a town we'd never been to and she didn't pass (an unfamiliar junction was enough to make an error). Her theory test expires at the end of August and therefore she can't access any new tests being added as they are now in October. We have secured one 120 miles away in August, but between now and then, there is NOTHING in the UK that's available, not even the Shetlands. After searching about 50 test centres, I get blocked by the DVSA website. The apps are no longer effective as there are very few cancellations and will be even fewer now that you can't cancel <10 days away. A year ago, there were 180k tests a month, now it's down to 160k. Any ideas? Northern Ireland? Ireland? Channel Islands? Somewhere in the EU?
It’s an absolute nightmare.
My son failed his first test, managed to book him a retest but that was 6 months away. I used one of the apps to bring it forward a couple of months. He failed his 3nd test and it took me a month of trying every day to book another retest, another 6 months away. The app reduced this to 5 months.
He’d been having lessons for 18 months and eventually passed his 3rd test earlier this week with no minors. We were overjoyed and so relived to be out of the whole saga.
The system is a joke.
Then we struggled to get him a new insurance policy, with many insurers refusing cover. Eventually we got him with Hastings Direct for £2,700 on his 2013 2.0L Fiesta (no black box) so the pain doesn’t end when passing the test!!!
My son failed his first test, managed to book him a retest but that was 6 months away. I used one of the apps to bring it forward a couple of months. He failed his 3nd test and it took me a month of trying every day to book another retest, another 6 months away. The app reduced this to 5 months.
He’d been having lessons for 18 months and eventually passed his 3rd test earlier this week with no minors. We were overjoyed and so relived to be out of the whole saga.
The system is a joke.
Then we struggled to get him a new insurance policy, with many insurers refusing cover. Eventually we got him with Hastings Direct for £2,700 on his 2013 2.0L Fiesta (no black box) so the pain doesn’t end when passing the test!!!
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