Learners face 18-week average wait time for driving tests

Boston faced the longest wait, reaching 22 weeks in May, while Grimsby had the shortest wait time at 13 weeks in the same month.

As a predominantly rural county, driving is essential for many families. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, younger people have struggled to secure driving tests due to extended backlogs.

Nearly 150,000 additional tests were made available in the last financial year. Despite this effort, wait times nationwide have crept back up, with over three-quarters of exam centres still facing delays of more than three months.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) noted that long wait times are due to increased demand and low customer confidence in driving test availability, which has led to changes in booking behaviour.

As a result, people are now booking their tests much earlier in advance. Approximately 8.2% of individuals book a driving test after passing their theory test but before starting any lessons. Whereas, 26% book their test immediately after passing their theory test and completing some driving lessons.

Camilla Benitz, Managing Director, AA Driving School said: “Despite making additional test slots available between October and March, the average waiting time started increasing in February and was back up to 17.8 weeks in May.

“Without a clear plan of action from the DVSA on how to tackle these waiting times it is impossible to say when we think things will improve. Long waiting times add extra financial pressure onto pupils as many will need to take lessons over an unnecessarily long period of time to keep their skills ‘test ready’ while they wait for their slot.

“We need to see a renewed commitment from the DVSA to make additional driving test slots available, but also to recruiting and retaining more examiners so additional learner test slots do not come at the expense of other vital DVSA services, such as driving instructor training exams, which we have seen falling availability of recently.”

Driving schools are also facing long wait periods, with one school in Skegness reporting a wait time extending until January 2025.

DVSA CEO Loveday Ryder noted that the average waiting time for customers in Lincolnshire, including North Lincolnshire, was exactly 17.7 weeks in July 2024.

She said: “In the past financial year alone, we’ve provided almost two million tests, and I was delighted to meet the Transport Secretary recently to discuss how we can continue to increase the number of tests by recruiting more examiners while tackling bots and those exploiting learners.

“DVSA want to see more learners passing first time, so we’re working with the driver training industry to educate and advise learners on what they can do to prepare and improve their likelihood of passing.

“Learners can check out our Ready to Pass campaign and use our checklist to make sure they’ve had enough lessons so they can drive safely and are ready to pass first time.”