Learner drivers across vast swathes of Britain are being forced to wait six months for an examination date, Money Mail can reveal.
The hold up means that students booking a driving test today in one of 107 locations — a third of all test centres — including Cheltenham, Guildford and Taunton are unlikely to be granted a driver’s licence before October.
Covid-19 lockdowns led to a nationwide shortage of test slots as more than 450,000 examinations were cancelled in the 12 months to March 2021.
But three years on, the overall average wait time for a test is still 17 weeks — down from a peak of nearly 21 in August — as the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has failed to clear the backlog.
Close to 80 per cent of test centres have a delay of more than six weeks, the average wait time before the pandemic, according to figures obtained by Money Mail through a Freedom of Information request.
Long-distance: Georgina Joaquim, 17, has been learning to drive since March but has only been able to book a test for July at a centre near Portsmouth — more than 30 miles away
The bottleneck means that driving instructors are now telling learners to book a test before they’ve had their first lesson.
Naughton Dunn, a driving instructor in Ludlow, Shropshire, says: ‘I’ve said to students, “Let’s get your practical test booked” before they’ve even sat behind the wheel of a car.’
Some are so desperate for a slot that they are willing to travel hundreds of miles to a test centre, he says.
‘The situation is an absolute nightmare. I’ve had people in Edinburgh and three from the London area contact me to help them get ready for a test in Ludlow.
‘I’ve had to turn my phone off as I get messages all through the night from learner drivers who want to book lessons.’
Mark Steeples, a driving instructor in Skipton, North Yorkshire, says that learners in his area are already trying to book driving tests for September.
‘Some of my students are about to go to university and want to get their tests done before they go,’ he says. ‘At the moment there’s massive demand with not enough supply.’
Among those caught in the backlog is Faustina Anyanwu, 46, who has been trying to book a driving test near her home in Greenwich, London, for more than a year.
The delay means that the married mother of four must also resit her driving theory examination, as it has been more than two years since she took the test and her certificate has expired.
‘I have been logging on to the DVSA website every Monday at 6am to try and get a slot as that is when the driving tests are released,’ Faustina says.
She estimates that she has spent £3,000 on driving lessons but is no closer to getting on the road.
‘The whole situation has been very frustrating. I have been unable to get a new job as many roles require you to have a driving licence,’ says Faustina, the co-founder of international women’s forum Divas Of Colour.
‘I was even offered one role with a car allowance, but I had to turn it down.’
The bottleneck means that driving instructors are now telling learners to book a test before they’ve had their first lesson
Learners are also signing up for cancellation apps and websites, including Testi and Driving Test Cancellations.
These services work by using automated software to scan the DVSA website in search of available driving tests.
When they find available slots, app users are notified and pay a fee of around £15 for the service — and sometimes an additional charge for finding a test.
Using a cancellation app was the only way baker and author Reshmi Bennett, 40, was able to secure a test date.
‘We moved from London to Farnham in Surrey last September as we needed more space, and I suddenly needed to drive,’ Reshmi says.
‘I couldn’t visit schools to talk about my books, drive my son to birthday parties or meet new people. I was also spending around £133 a week to travel to my bakery in London and it was adding up. It was a very stressful time.’
In desperation she downloaded an app, which then asked her to join a WhatsApp messaging group where test dates were posted every morning.
When she selected a date, the group admin messaged her with his bank details and asked her to transfer him £100.
‘I paid the money thinking it must be a scam, but somehow it worked and I finally got a test at a centre in Farnborough,’ she says. Reshmi estimates that she spent around £2,250 learning to drive.
Backlog: Covid-19 lockdowns led to a nationwide shortage of test slots as more than 450,000 examinations were cancelled in the 12 months to March 2021
Geraldine Joaquim, 54, says trying to secure a driving test for her daughter Georgina, 17, is ‘like a full time job’.
Geraldine, a clinical hypnotherapist, has been using the Testi app to try to get a slot for Georgina near their home in Petworth, West Sussex.
The app costs £12.99 and issues notifications to users when tests become available.
Georgina has been learning to drive since March but has only been able to book a test for July through the DVSA website at a centre near Portsmouth — more than 30 miles away.
‘We live in a very rural area where there is no public transport, so everything is by car here. Georgina is keen to get the test done so she can have more freedom,’ says Geraldine.
‘Throughout the day my phone pings to let me know there’s a slot. This morning, I was doing yoga and had to stop as I got a notification to say that a test is available.
‘If you don’t jump on it then within five minutes someone will have nabbed it.’
In A bid to tackle the bottleneck, the DVSA says it has recruited 550 new driving test examiners.
It has also offered to pay its current workforce double for any overtime they work, and put staff who are trained examiners but currently work in administrative roles back on the road.
This has allowed the service to carry out an additional 145,000 tests between October and March, just shy of its 150,000 target, as it attempts to clear the logjam.
In a typical year, more than 1.5 million tests would be taken.
A DVSA spokesman says: ‘We will continue to work tirelessly to push down waiting times even further and we encourage learners to only book their driving test when they feel they are ready to pass.’
