The UK government has announced new measures to address long waiting lists for driving tests and to prevent the resale of test slots at inflated prices. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander stated that only learner drivers would be allowed to book tests, aiming to protect them from exploitation by online bots that acquire slots quickly for resale. Despite these efforts, she acknowledged during a session with the Transport Committee that the waiting times will not reach the target of seven weeks by summer 2026, with current average wait times reported at 21.8 weeks as of June.
In a bid to alleviate the backlog, examiners from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will join the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) to conduct tests one day a week for a year. This initiative, at an estimated cost of £100,000, involves civil service examiners rather than military personnel. The DVSA has also hired 316 new examiners, resulting in a net gain of 40 as many left the role. Starting next year, examiners will receive a retention payment of £5,000.
Further limitations will be placed on the number of times a driver can reschedule their test and the locations to which they can move their bookings. Previous reports indicated that 319 driving test centers across Great Britain had an average waiting time of 22 weeks, with many reaching the maximum average wait time of 24 weeks. The DVSA is consistently making more tests available; however, these quickly get booked up by automated software, leading to exploitation by third-party sellers, who charge learners vastly inflated fees.
At the end of last month, approximately 642,000 learner drivers had a test booked, highlighting the increased demand and the change in booking behavior. In total, about 182,000 tests were completed last month, marking a 9% increase from the previous year.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn09v4d2xe7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss