Driving test rules to change in bid to stop bots booking slots
In a scheme aimed at reducing long waiting lists and preventing slots from being sold at unreasonable rates, only learner drivers will be able to book driving tests.
According to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, banning third parties from reselling slots would prevent people from being "exploited" by online bots. However, she told MPs on the Transport Committee that she could not guarantee waiting times for driving tests would be reduced to seven weeks by summer 2026, the most recent deadline she set. The average waiting time was 21.8 weeks at the end of June.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) will investigate changes to how tests are booked and bring in examiners from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to help minimise the backlog. According to the Department for Transport, 36 MoD driving examiners will be sent to conduct tests in England one day a week for a year, at a cost of £100,000. These examiners are civil servants, not military personnel.
The DVSA has recruited 316 new examiners, but Alexander said that this has resulted in a net gain of only 40, as others have left. To retain them, driving examiners will be paid a "retention fee" of £5,000 from next year.
A cap on how often a learner can move or swap a test will be introduced, as well as on the geographic area they can move a test to once it is booked.
According to BBC Verify, the average wait time across the 319 driving test centres in the United Kingdom was 22 weeks, with three-quarters of centres experiencing the highest average wait times of 24 weeks. Every week, the DVSA conducts more tests, but bots—automated systems that can book much faster than humans—snap up available slots. Companies then resell these test slots to desperate applicants at higher rates.
Last month, 38 MPs wrote a letter urging the government to take action on the issue of re-selling tests. A driving test costs £62 for a weekday slot or £75 for evenings and weekends. According to the letter, third-party vendors are charging up to £500. Learner drivers have reported having to get up at 05:30 or wait in a virtual queue for hours to schedule a test directly.
There were 642,000 learner drivers with a test booked by the end of last month. According to the DVSA, the backlog is a result of increased demand and people booking tests much earlier than they are ready for them. Last month, 182,000 tests took place, an increase of 9% from October 2024.
Learner drivers across the country still face "excessive" waiting times when booking tests, according to Emma Bush, a driving school's managing director.
Ms Bush said, 'Increased assistance from MoD driving examiners could help relieve some of the system's stress. The tightening of the booking system would eliminate the wiggle-room that allows unscrupulous test resellers to profit from learners' misery.'
'It's great to see steps being taken to put an end to those touting tests to frustrated learners,' RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said. 'Candidates who are stuck in the queue should at least be reassured that they aren't being pushed aside by those merely trying to make a buck.'
