It is still possible for the public to grab late-notice cancellation driving test slots and jump the queue. But in this blog we will attempt to explain the bigger picture of what is occurring. Remember, these late notice slots are created simply because people change their plans with regards to when to take the driving test – and that happens for a variety of reasons given below.
It is a fact that the DVSA are appealing to the public to not use organisations that use “bots” to identify these slots. The organisations typically charge in the region of just over £10, and through technology they automatically go around the public booking service, immediately sweeping up any cancellation slots that surface – thereby making them unavailable to the public. If those organisations did NOT exist, then there would be plenty of short-notice cancellation slots freely available for the public to choose from. As they DO exist, the public feel compelled to use them, at an extra cost, just to get access to these premium slots. Understandably, the DVSA are attempting to root out these organisations. The public should not have to pay extra money to get access to short-notice cancellation test slots. The booking system is a public booking system owned and maintained by the DVSA but it is being permanently hijacked by these organisations who infiltrate the system to artificially create a demand that they can then financially benefit from. The loser or victim in this situation is the end consumer, the people who are wanting to obtain test slots. Not only do they end up paying for a service that should under normal circumstances be free of charge, but also, the amount of irritation, confusion, stress and energy that this hyped up demand creates really upsets pupils and parents, and is incredibly distracting to the learning process, so it also affects driving instructors who are trying to deliver quality training.
And so the dilemma for the public is to either sit there and notice that very few slots become available or they can purchase access to these slots where the organisation used, notify them as a slot crops up. It is a very difficult situation to resolve, because the DVSA seemingly cannot protect their booking system from these organisations. It is also true though that if there were not 5-6 month waiting lists for driving test slots, then the public would not feel a need to use such organisations. But let’s explore that point a little deeper.
It is important to appreciate the timescales involved here. The DVSA tell us that it takes on average 7 months to pass a driving test, using the standard pay-as-you-go driving lessons. So, if a person who is learning to drive, was to do their theory test straight away, in the first month, and then immediately book up a test in 6 months time, they would be on course for what the average person takes. Rarely is it as straightforward as that, because if it were, then there wouldn’t be this constant demand for short-notice driving test slots. More realistically, the process a person takes to learn to drive will often involve starting to learn, perhaps taking a pause along the way, or maybe changing to a different driving instructor and so, quite naturally, the path taken tends to be not so straightforward as “from when you start, you’ll be ready for the test in 7 months”.
Very often for example, a pupil will get about two thirds into the process of learning to drive, and from that moment onwards, start to get very “itchy” about wanting to go to test. Pupils understandably want to shorten the process as much as possible, and so what happens then is, across the UK, you have thousands of pupils seeking driving test slots BEFORE their 7 month period has elapsed, and they start paying sometimes more attention to pulling a test slot forward, than they do ensuring they have the appropriate skills to be safe and likely to pass the test. It is uncorroborated but very likely that this is one of the primary causes for the national average driving test pass rate being below 50% If everyone was to just stick to the timescales involved, and accept that initial test booking date, then there would be no need to be pulling it forward. But virtually everybody does desire to pull their initial test date forward and it creates an enormous strain on the system.
In effect, what occurs is that the obtaining of an earlier than planned driving test slot becomes more important than ensuring someone is properly ready to take the test. And this does create a tension between instructor and pupil and probably accounts for why so many people across the UK now take tests in private cars. This is one reason why our Self-Test Saver option was introduced and it is indeed very popular.
What can be done about this situation? Well, unfortunately for all the consumers out there, and one might also say for the 40,000+ driving instructors, the only provider of driving tests in the UK is via the regulator, the DVSA. And the DVSA has been struggling to get waiting times for driving tests down to reasonable times since before Covid – the situation we are in was not caused by Covid. They appear to be recruiting more examiners and they were trying to reallocate their resources away from desks and back to conducting tests (although that particular action has stopped now), and they are appealing to the public to only go to test when they really are ready, so as to improve the national pass rate, thereby reducing the demand to take further attempts. But few of these initiatives appear to be making any difference to the problem.
BIG TOM Driving School has been providing driving training to people for 16 years by both pay-as-you-go driving lessons and also intensive driving courses. It is our policy to NOT use the organisations mentioned above. The issue relating to sourcing late-notice driving test slots affects both types of customers for the reasons given above. The major difference between them is that with the intensive courses a customer is getting up to test standard potentially, far quicker than the person who does it via pay-as-you-go driving lessons saving them something like 6 months.
