Pupils and parents of pupils are contacting driving instructors, with a driving test already booked and are getting annoyed why the driving instructor will not take them on. Please read this blog to help you to understand what is happening.
The taking of a driving test is a public service, there is only one provider and it is a government backed agency called the DVSA. Like all other public services such as doctors, dentists, police, the way that the service is being offered to the public has changed. And it is true with the provision of driving tests too. Back in August 2023, the DVSA made all driving instructors accountable for what happens on a driving test in terms of the number of faults, the pass rate, whether the examiner had to intervene. The DVSA monitor what occurs in the driving school car, and the instructor can lose their badge (effectively lose their job), if they fall below certain measures.
For good or bad, right or wrong, that is the situation. The DVSA can literally not cope with the demand of driving tests, and so they are attempting to make the process of booking and taking a test as painful as possible, in order to then focus the minds of the pupils, so that they are more likely to pass the test therefore not pulling on the DVSA resources any longer. [The national pass rate being just under 50%].
Therefore, the days when pupils can just dictate to a driving instructor when they want to go to take a driving test are long gone. This is true if they intend to take the driving test in a driving instructor’s car. If the public take the test in a personal, private car, none of the above monitoring occurs [at the present time], and there are no consequences for failed tests.
As a result of all of this, pupils are finding that instructors are not willing to enter into an amount of work ON THE BASIS that the instructor then takes that pupil to test, on the date that the pupil has already booked. If, as has been suggested, the instructor enters into the ‘contract’ with a pupil, and then states to the pupil that they are not prepared to take the pupil to test, on the date the pupil has booked, what is happening is that the pupils (and/or their parents) then create bitter, resentful reviews for the instructor as they have refused to take the pupil to test. So simply for preservation of their business, instructors do not take pupils on who have already booked up a test.
This whole arrangement (created by the regulator) is wholly unsatisfactory for driving instructors, because the instructor is being squeezed by pressure from the DVSA as well as from the customer. It makes for a very unpleasant working atmosphere.
The way the DVSA would like the public to act is ONLY book up a driving test when an instructor gives approval/authority to do so, where they are showing willingness to take the pupil to test in the driving school car. The problem that particular approach to this creates is then how long do pupil and instructor have to wait, in this state of being ready/approved to take a test.
As can be seen by this example recently, it is perfectly possible to source a cancellation driving test slot once the driving instructor approves a pupil to go to test. And this did NOT involve using any ‘paid for’ apps, but simply by closely monitoring the DVSA booking system online.
So if you are desperate to go to test, and have already booked up a test, then the best thing to do currently, is take the test (if you are genuinely ready to be driving independently), in your own personal vehicle. No personal vehicle, don’t book a test.
None of the above is the making of driving instructors in general, or BIG TOM Driving School, it is simply an explanation as to why instructors are not taking on pupils who come to them with a test booked.
