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Mr Mercury, on 05 April 2025 - 07:47 AM, said:

I hope that whatever this consultation concludes will lead to more radical and positive action to deal with the problem. I get round it to some degree by booking the tests when the syllabus has been covered, meaning that by the time the test comes around, the learner should then be at the required standard. That works well for the majority who pass on their first attempt; it’s when a second test is needed that it becomes an issue.

Search & Destroy, on 11 March 2025 - 04:38 PM, said:

The test slots are released based on the examiners usual working days. This has always happened because they don’t always have cover for sickness and absenteeism. It can’t always be helped but I do feel for the test candidates that this happens to.

dart in the crossbar, on 11 March 2025 - 10:03 AM, said:

Between October 2023 and March 2024 they shored up the examiner numbers with warrant card holders. By this I mean people who work for the DVSA who normally work in other roles but are qualified to conduct tests. This had a positive impact on availability in some but not all test centres. This couldn’t go on forever because some of these were examiners who conduct ADI standards checks and qualifying tests for new instructors, for which there’s also a backlog.

As instructors we’ve been making the same noises, as it’s having an effect on how we run our businesses. We can only give opinions, but it’s ultimately down to the DVSA and the government to find solutions.

The question that needs to be asked here is, do we still blame the lack of test availability on the post-pandemic backlog?

The main factors driving this are the use of bots and misuse of the booking service where tests are booked in bulk using people?s licence details, then swapping details when a booked test date is approaching for the unscrupulous operators to sell said test slots at a premium. This would be less of a problem if there wasn?t the sheer amount of people willing to feed into their business model. The more these people create a system where there appears to be no tests, the more people will rush to panic book, in many cases being nowhere near the required standard. It wouldn?t be anywhere near as bad if booking behaviour was the same as it was before the pandemic. You could question if it?s down to misguided desperation, self-entitlement, or both.

Examiners are being recruited, but it takes time to train them. Even if they?re offered a position they may fail the training, or not get through the probationary period. Factor in retirements and other natural wastage, the net increase in examiner numbers is relatively slow.

The difficulty we have as instructors is that we now have to gauge when a pupil is going to be ready based on waiting times, rather than when we could simply book when someone reaches the required standard.

I?ve got a manual training vehicle for the next three years. After that I?m expecting to switch to auto.