Driving Test Delays Hit 20-Year Peak: Time to Pump the Brakes on Your Licence Dreams?

Learners, brace yourselves! You’re now looking at a six-week longer wait for your driving test compared to last year, the longest wait in two decades, as revealed by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). But don’t fear, the DVSA has pledged to curtail this delay by the close of 2025. From the spiralling costs of lessons to the hefty price tag on that first car, learning to drive is no easy ride, and this fresh hurdle of a 20-week average wait for a driving test is doing no favours. The blame? A colossal backlog at test centres, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic and industrial action. Opportunistic folk have been capitalising on this demand, using automated software to snag multiple test slots to flog to eager learners. The DVSA, however, is not sitting idle. They’ve set their sights on reducing test waiting times to an average of seven weeks nationwide by year’s end – a hefty task, considering only seven centres currently meet this target. Plans to slash waiting times include recruiting hundreds more examiners and a new rule from the Department for Transport (DfT) that restricts changes to test bookings to ten working days before the test, compared to the current three. The hope is that learners will hold off booking until they’re ready to pass, freeing up slots for others. With the percentage of 17-20 year-olds with a full licence dropping from 35% in 2019 to 29% in 2023, the race is on to get young people back on the road, and not just for the thrill of independent travel – access to jobs and education is at stake too. Are you or someone you know struggling to secure a test? How has this impacted your life? We want to hear from you!