The current national average car driving test waiting time is 15.0 weeks. This has increased slightly because we needed to reschedule a significant number of driving tests on 19 September due to the funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II.
We know some of you are frustrated about not being able to book driving tests at test centres with waiting times of 24 weeks. You have told us that you and your pupils are having to regularly check the booking service for tests, and you would like us to open the booking window beyond 24 weeks.
We have explored this option and we want to explain why we will not be opening tests beyond 24 weeks.
Our data shows that nationally there are many more available tests in the booking service and around a third of driving test centres now have waiting times of 9 weeks or less.
The number of driving test centres with a waiting time of 24 weeks has reduced from over 100 centres at its highest to 55. We are also continuing to do everything we can to make more tests available at test centres with a 24 week waiting time. This includes:
- local test centre managers carrying out 2 days of testing each week
- recruiting more driving examiners in these areas
- deploying driving examiners to areas where the demand is highest
- introducing a text messaging service to remind candidates about their test, which has reduced the number of candidates who fail to attend for their test by a third; we plan to promote these messages where we have the highest fail to