By Laura McCarthy.
In Dante’s Divine Comedy, Purgatory is presented as a mountain; this agonising, uphill battle is the perfect representation of how it feels to be a learner driver in the UK right now.
Let me give some context to my own situation as a learner driver. I am 28 years old. Since October 2024, I have been learning to drive and have spent £3000 of my hard earned savings to do so. I was only able to start this year because I left my last teaching job to work part-time in a college careers department; I don’t think I would have had any chance of learning when I was working 7am-6pm everyday as a full-time teacher. Additionally, when I was younger, we didn’t have the money for me to learn and I have always been far too busy to have the time; at university, I worked at least two jobs during my studies at any one time in order to support myself and, after graduating, I started a degree apprenticeship in teaching (which is an extreme and highly competitive pathway into teaching, where you are working in schools immediately, after only a month of training).
Trying to get my full driving license has felt like a form of torture. To start with, finding an instructor who wouldn’t cost me a small fortune took months of researching and waiting. With the cost of an hour of driving being around £35-£50, the expense quickly racks up; you can see how this basic life skill can be off-limits for those in lower income households. And once you’ve found an instructor, things don’t get any easier.
Despite having done over 80 hours of driving and my instructor giving me the go-ahead, getting a test is a nightmare. Three quarters of test centres in the UK have hit the maximum wait-time of 24 weeks for tests. The government promised to cut this down to 7 weeks but, so far, the problem is only getting increasingly worse, like a festering wound.
It doesn’t help that examination feels incredibly subjective and can often feel very unfair. Some people I have spoken to said that the test they passed on was a lot worse than ones they failed on! With less than 50% of drivers passing at most test centres, no wonder we have a backlog of people waiting!
I have only taken one driving test so far but I was not successful. Though I am obviously biased, I think I should have passed. I got five minors, two of which were for hesitancy (or, as I like to call it, being cautious and safe), and a serious which I would, at best, describe as a minor. My examiner also ignored my request for my instructor to be in the car with me for the debrief, which was unsettling for me as an anxiety sufferer. They seemingly didn’t care, just another day at the office, when they told me I failed and I didn’t even have my trusted instructor with me for emotional support. For me, I felt the hurt of months of waiting and the thousands of pounds I had already spent, as well as I knowing I would have to wait even longer and pay even more. But my budget has already been swallowed up! I don’t have another £3000 lying around in a cost of living crisis! The worst thing of all was… I felt sure I did well on that test.
I even went to the effort of submitting a complaint due to the issues I had with my test, particularly since my driving instructor was not permitted to hear the debrief, but found this a similarly dehumanising process in which it felt like nobody actually wanted to help me.
But my opinion doesn’t matter, apparently, and I can’t refute the result either; if you appeal your test result, the best you can get is a free test – you don’t even get that successful result – and it could well put you out of pocket if you are unsuccessful in your appeal. How is this meant to make learners feel? Totally worthless. So your examiner basically has ULTIMATE POWER, whilst you are left to bear the brunt of your unsuccessful result.
And that burden is a big one. Your theory test result is only viable for 2 years and, if you are waiting 6 months for a test every time, that only gives you 3 or 4 attempts before it runs out and you have to sit it again. IF you even manage to book one. For this reason, I am campaigning for the theory result to last for 5 years and you can sign my petition here: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/735421.
With many people I have spoken to taking multiple test attempts to pass, the process for learners right now is extremely arduous, taking years to get that successful result. I sat my first test in July, after having booked it in January. How long will it take for me to do my next one?
I couldn’t even try to book straight away as you have to wait 10 working days after an unsuccessful result, supposedly so you have “time to reflect” – with waiting times as they are, I think I have plenty of time to reflect without this arbitrary condition being imposed on me. I looked today, the day my ban has been lifted, and there are no tests available anywhere at anytime. I’ve refreshed the page multiple times but it shows the same haunting words “NO TESTS FOUND ON ANY DATE” every time I try. I have refreshed the page so many times that it has had to ask me if I am a human. With well-meaning family members who passed their test decades ago saying “just book another test”, I feel like ripping my hair out, collapsing onto my knees, and screaming into the heavens.
To make the problem even worse, there are a multitude of scalpers and test finding apps which promise test dates to students at inflated prices. It already costs around £70 for a test and you’re asking me to pay extra on top of that? Partaking in this also makes life harder for other learners so the whole experience is like a self-cannibalising snake. Yes, the government are trying to think of ways to solve this issue (I have been sent various emails asking for my opinion on them creating their own version of these apps, etcetera), but they aren’t solving the problem quickly enough.
My suggestion? I think a coursework option could be a way to solve the test backlog. Yes, this would have its own problems, but I think it would be much, much better. Instead of sitting the test, perhaps we submit several hours of filmed driving. Not only would this give a much better picture of the overall abilities of the driver than a 35-45 minute test, it would also mean that learners don’t have to go through the painful test experience. It would also allow for moderation; as teachers, we are expected to moderate our marking but a single driving examiner can just decide I’ve failed and that’s that – how is that fair?
With coursework, you just submit your hours and then wait for it to be approved. The UK government just loves an exam but this isn’t always the best way to assess learners (as I well know as a teacher – I have written about this before).
My conclusion is this: we need an immediate, urgent overhaul of the DVSA and the driving test process. Currently, the hurdles we face as learners are excessive and excruciating. So next time you tell your friend, child, or family member to “just rebook the test”, consider that we are trying our best but the system is stacked against us.
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