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A woman claimed she had to make a booking driving test like 10 hours away learner driver is becoming Eagerness to book test is increasingwith The long wait is expected to continue Till 2026 and beyond.
Latest figures from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (TVSA) show that, according to the latest data for November, Current Average Wait Time for one driving test Nationally it is 22 weeks, The advance booking list includes 638,270 people.
Experts have warned that the backlog could continue for the next two years, as an estimated 1 million tests were put on hold during this time covid Lockdown restrictions from five years ago. TVSA The problems are said to be due to increased demand, people booking tests early and bots and middlemen quickly buying up slots to sell.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander previously said Labor The government “inherited a huge backlog” and was “working quickly” to tackle the issue, but admitted in November that the government would not meet its target of reducing waiting times to seven weeks by the summer of 2026.
Long waiting list is going to continue in the new year learner driver Taking extreme steps to ensure they can get tested.
Colette Bodde, 29, Customs Independent She eventually passed her test in Fort William, a town in the Highlands, about 10 hours from her home. London,
He said the government’s booking system was “simply a dead end” and when he tried the tests were “immediately unavailable”.
to select scotland So she could borrow her mother’s car, rather than paying for the instructor’s vehicle. Ms Bodde was keen to get her license because it “felt like a useful life skill” which “felt like by the age of 28 I should be able to do something”.
Londoner Rafa James, 18, had booked his test in Carmarthen, Wales, 200 miles away, after feeling “time pressure” to pass while traveling in January, and he did not want to “backslide” and have to start again on his return at the end of the year.
he described it TVSA The booking system was described as “disorganized and frustrating due to the persistent lack of available test dates indefinitely”.
Mr James said he had “spent a lot of money on train tickets” and felt he was suffering an “immediate loss” because he was not used to driving in the area.
Halima Abdi, 21, said she had been waking up at 5am every Monday for five months trying to book a test and finally found one in Birmingham, about three hours away.
Saying the situation was “extremely difficult”, the Londoner said: “I have been told by family and friends that it would be better to choose somewhere else as they are more likely to have space for me.”
Ms Abdi, a student journalist, said carrying heavy-duty camera kit on trains is “stressful” and called for TVSA To keep those who need it driving test For work on priority list.
National Audit Office (NAO) warned earlier this month that the backlog Approval will not be given until November 2027. The watchdog revealed that almost one in three learners are resorting to paying up to £500 to third parties to secure a testing slot.
Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “The current system of delivering driving tests in England, scotland And Wales is not working satisfactorily due to long waiting time and exploitation learner driver By resellers of test slots.
Forward booking figures have fallen by 29,858 so far from a peak of 668,128 in September this year, and the government said it was taking “decisive action to reduce driving test waiting lists by making more tests available”.
DVSA told Independent: “We conducted 14,400 more tests in October 2025 compared to October 2024.
“Following our recent consultation, we are also changing the driving test booking system to help ensure it works fairly for everyone and makes it easier for genuine learners to book their test.”
The changes include ensuring that only learner drivers, rather than instructors, can book the test, and that only two edits can be made to the test – including moves, swaps and venue changes – before it must be canceled and re-booked in order to beat renegotiations.
Learner drivers will be restricted to a limited number of testing centers located close to the original booking, and 36 military driving examiner It will also help in conducting more than 6,500 tests in a year.
But Emma Bush, managing director of AA Driving Schools, warned that learner drivers are seeing their “mobility and job prospects” affected due to persistent “excessive and restrictive waiting times”.
He said the situation may improve slightly next year due to additional support from military driving examiners. “The booking system should be tightened [also] “Reduce the barriers that are allowing unscrupulous test resellers to profit from the misery of learners,” he said.
But he stressed that to truly improve the backlog in 2026, “long-term, sustained action is needed to bring wait times back to where they were before.”covid level. Along with recruiting more testers, there is a need to focus on retaining existing testers so that a higher number of tests can be administered on a sustained basis.