Driving test rules to change in bid to stop bots booking slots

In a scheme aimed at reducing long waiting lists and preventing slots being sold at unreasonable rates, only learner drivers would be able to book driving lessons. 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 Transportation Committee that waiting times for driving tests would not 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 how to book tests and examiners from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to try to minimize the backlog, as well as reducing the back log. 36 MoDdriving examiners will be sent in to perform experiments in England one day a week for a year, according to the Department of Transport, at a cost of £100,000. These examiners are civil servants, not military forces. 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 continue their service, driving examiners will be paid a retention fee of £5,000 from next year to continue working and maintaining them. A cap on how often a driver will move or swap a test will be introduced, as well as the geographic area where a tester will move a testing to once they've booked it. According to BBC Verify, the average wait time across the 319 driving test centers in the United Kingdom was 22 weeks, with three-quarters of centers meeting the highest average wait times of 24 weeks. Every week, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) conducts more experiments, but bots - automated systems that can perform much faster than humans - book more tests. Companies then resell the test slots to poor applicants at higher rates. Last month, 38 MPs wrote a letter urging the government to take the right option on the issue of re-selling tests. The driving test will cost you £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 that they have to get up at 05:30 GMT 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 expected. Last month, 182,000 tests took place, an increase of 9% from October 2024.

Learner drivers across the country still have excessive and stringent waiting times when booking tests, according to Emma Bush, the school's managing director. Ms Bush said,

Increased assistance from military 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 who shouting 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 forced to be ignored by those merely trying to make a buck.