Every three months, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), the people responsible for your theory and driving test, meet up with professional driving instructor body, the National Associations Strategic Partnership.
The reason? To get the very latest updates from the agency about the big issues affecting driver training, trainers – and ultimately, you as a learner.
During the latest meet-up this November, the DVSA offered several important updates that have a direct impact on you, your learning and those lengthy test wait times.
Waiting times
The DVSA stated car driving test waiting times in October were:
- England: 20.5 weeks
- Scotland: 15.6 weeks
- Wales: 12.8 weeks
That means the overall national waiting time was 19.5 weeks. The good news is that there has been a slight increase in test slot availability with around 94,000 tests now available to book.
However, the DVSA is working hard to reduce waiting times further by aiming to recruit 450 new driving examiners. Any new examiner will be sent to areas where demand is far outreaching the supply of driving tests.
And those examiners can’t arrive soon enough in Wales. Waiting times have been climbing in the country with DVSA already working with Welsh instructors to try and alleviate some of the pressure.
MOT-ready?
The DVSA has added a new function where any vehicle that is to be used in a driving test is checked on the day to ensure it has a valid MOT.
The aim is to boost the safety of both the examiner and the driver. So if you’re using your own car for the test, please do make sure it is MOTed or else you will be turned away.
Booking tests
NASP raised the issue of last minute cancellation for tests, saying that it felt the system was being overcome by people who were cancelling a test when they’d already changed it five times before re-booking with a new booking number. The DVSA says that work is already underway for designing “a service for the future”. We’ll keep you posted on any developments.
Another issue is how driving instructors are booking tests, in particular swapping the booking of one student with another student. NASP clarified that whenever instructors swap tests using data from new pupils, they must tell the pupils that they’re using their data.
Fraud whistleblowing
A serious issue, NASP asked about the whistleblowing policy for those reporting instructors who were fraudulently offering learners tests for financial benefit. The DVSA stressed the balance of confidentiality versus gathering of evidence was important, but said it would supply guidance on its whistleblowing policy to support helpdesk teams working for NASP.
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