Car driving test wait times are at an all-time high in London, with people waiting on average almost six months for a test, new data shows.
A Freedom of Information request to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) revealed the average wait time for a car driving test in London this year-to-date is 23 weeks, compared to just seven weeks five years ago.
London is also worse affected than other regions in the UK, four weeks ahead of the national average wait time of 19 weeks.
The DVSA includes Borehamwood, Chertsey, Loughton, Slough and West Wickham under London test centres, as they serve learners in the London and Greater London area.
The extended wait times have resulted in some learners travelling long distances to take tests.
Videsh Weerakkody, a university graduate from north east London, travelled more than 300 miles for a driving test in Carlisle, after being unable to secure one at his local test centre in Wanstead.
Wanstead has an average wait time of 24 weeks this year, the longest wait time at a London test centre.
Weerakkody said: “I was in a rush to pass as I was starting work and moving to a new area.”
However, north east London-based driving instructor Manesh Lomash warned that learners taking tests in areas where they have never driven before are at a serious disadvantage.
He said that when driving in a new area it is easy to get confused by straightforward road layouts, simply because you have not seen them before.
Test centres across the country were forced to close for eight months during the Covid-19 pandemic, during which time the DVSA would have carried out around one million tests.
This created a huge backlog, which is still affecting driving test wait times.
The DVSA has been working to improve the situation by increasing the number of tests available and recruiting more test examiners.
However, these initiatives have been largely unsuccessful due to increased demand and low confidence in driving test availability, resulting in a change in booking behaviour.
Lomash said: “If there is a problem and you cannot fix it within three and a half years, there is something wrong with your approach.
“But the DVSA is going back to the same approach again and again and expecting a different result, which is very strange.”
The number of driving tests taken in London returned to pre-pandemic levels for the first time this year.
A total of 319,309 tests were taken in London between March 2023-2024, rising almost 20% on-year.
The DVSA has reviewed its recruitment process and plans to recruit 450 extra examiners.
The first new entrant examiners are expected to begin conducting driving tests in January.
The DVSA also launched the Ready to Pass campaign back in 2022 in an effort to better equip learners to pass first time.
Learners can use the Ready to Pass checklist to make sure they have had enough lessons to drive safely and pass first time.
However, Lomash said that campaigns like this one simply make instructors the ‘scapegoat’, holding them responsible for allowing learners to book tests before they are ready.
The DVSA maintains that learners booking tests before they are ready is significantly affecting driving test wait times.
However, data shows that the pass rates in London have in fact increased over the last five years from an average of 42% between March 2019-2020, to 47% between March 2023-2024.
Lomash said that these measures taken by the DVSA will not resolve the extended wait times and called for ‘fresh ideas’ and a ‘fresh mandate’.
Lomash, along with other instructors, has raised the issue with local MPs.
He added: “This is not very important to the government, hardly anybody bothers about it.
“For us it doesn’t make any difference , it’s more money for us, but it’s just too difficult for the young people who are trying to get their license.”
Wait times have also led to the emergence of a ‘black market’ for driving tests.
Third party sellers use bots to book test slots as soon as they are released faster than any human could.
The slots are then resold at overinflated prices, or by paid-for applications that alert users to test cancellations in their local area as they become available.
A car driving test costs £62 when booked through the DVSA’s official booking service.
However, new drivers have reported paying up to £350 to obtain a black-market driving test at the last minute.
The slots are advertised through WhatsApp groups, websites and driving schools.
Testi App was created in 2021 and has had more than three million downloads across IOS and Android devices since then.
The application’s £12.99 a month premium service alerts users to cancellations as soon as they become available.
While these services are expensive, one new driver said that it was no more expensive than having to fund another six months-worth of driving lessons while waiting for a test.
The black market is not only financially exploiting learners, but also using their personal details without permission.
Lara Olszowska, who bought her driving test on the black market for £169, was asked to provide her driving license number, theory certificate number and home address.
Having failed that test, she attempted to rebook another test through the official DVSA website and found her account had been blocked.
The DVSA told her that her account had been blocked for booking ‘too many’ tests with her details.
It was revealed that a company had used her details to repeatedly book tests under her name 52 times before swapping them with other candidates who wanted the slots at three times the price.
Olszowska said: “My advice to other drivers is always to book through the DVSA online or over the phone.
“You don’t want to end up spending hundreds on sooner test dates, only for a third party to run off with your details to book multiple tests so your details get blocked, and you find out when it’s too late.”
British automotive services company RAC has urged learners to book tests directly through the government website rather than through a third-party site.
RAC Head of Policy Simon Williams said: “Definitive action needs to be taken to prevent ‘bots’ booking tests and then selling them on to desperate learners for crazy amounts of money.
“This leads to genuine slots being wasted and learners, who are ready to take their tests, missing out and having to wait months for a chance to become a qualified driver.
“It’s also very wrong that real people who are genuinely trying to book their tests are being treated as if they are ‘bots’ because their data has been stolen by fraudsters.”
Since January 2023, the DVSA has issued 313 warnings, 766 suspensions and closed 705 businesses for misuse of its booking service.
The DVSA said it currently uses bot protection measures including CAPTCHA tests but that it is working to develop more advanced bot protection measures.
The agency said it cannot go into details of what these measures are, as that information could help people get around them.
The DVSA were contacted for a right of reply regarding the extended driving test wait times.
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