If you’ve got a learner driver in the house, there’s finally some good news. The latest figures from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) show the average wait for a practical driving test has dropped below 20 weeks for the first time in almost two years, down to 19.6 weeks.
It’s still a long way from ideal. Before the pandemic, learners were typically waiting around seven weeks, so today’s figure is nearly three times that. But after a period where things felt like they were only getting worse, a step in the right direction is worth noting. As recently as September last year, 70% of test centres were sitting at the maximum 24-week wait, leaving many learners simply unable to book a test at all.
So what’s changed? A few things, by the look of it. The number of driving examiners has grown by around 160, an 11% increase since last summer, which naturally creates more test slots. The DVSA also offered existing examiners overtime, adding more than 30,000 extra test slots in September alone. Combined, the past year saw roughly 2.16 million practical tests carried out across the UK, the highest 12-month total on record, with nearly 192,000 of those in September alone. That’s a 16% increase on the previous year.
The DVSA has also tightened up some of the rules around booking. Tests can now only be booked by the learner themselves, and there are tighter limits on moving or rescheduling a booked test. The window for cancelling and still getting your £62 fee back has also been shortened to 10 working days beforehand. These changes seem to be aimed squarely at the booking bots and resellers who’ve made life difficult for genuine learners trying to get a slot.
Roads minister Justin Madders was upbeat about the improvement, saying the figures show “real progress is being made.” Not everyone is quite as convinced yet, though. Carly Brookfield, chief executive of the Driving Instructors Association, welcomed the drop but was careful to temper expectations, noting that “we are still a long way off target, so no one should hand DVSA a bouquet yet.” She did say some of her members are noticing real improvements, particularly in areas that have had more examiners deployed.
There are still some underlying issues to work through. Examiner retention remains a challenge, and the DVSA is reportedly still catching thousands of booking-system rule breaches every month. There have also been reports of genuine learners getting locked out of the booking system over things like their IP address or how quickly they’re navigating the site, which, if you’re desperately trying to grab a cancellation slot, is a frustrating glitch to run into.
For anyone currently learning, or with a teenager edging toward test age, the practical upshot is this: waits are easing, but it’s still worth booking as early as realistically possible and keeping an eye on the DVSA’s official cancellation checker rather than relying on third-party resellers. And once that test is passed, if you’re weighing up whether to buy, finance or lease that first car, it’s always worth looking at what each option actually costs over time rather than just the headline monthly figure. That’s a conversation we’re always happy to have, whenever it’s useful.