Learners are struggling to take driving tests due to a chronic backlog of students due to the pandemic.
Here, a driving instructor and three learners share how they were affected.
“I have been contacting driving instructors for a year”
Chiedza Chogugudza Photo: Chiedza Chogugudza
Chiedza Chogugudza has been looking for a driving instructor for over a year. The 24-year-old molecular biology researcher passed her theory exam in April 2021 and found an instructor at the same time, but only completed four hours of practice before contracting Covid, prompting the instructor to give up her place to another trainee. “Now I can’t even get an instructor to answer me, and I’ve contacted so many instructors and schools I’ve lost count,” says Chogugudza, who lives in Richmond-upon-Thames, adding that she found booking a test “basically impossible “.
When she took her theory test last year, she didn’t think it could expire before she got her license. The situation is made worse as there is no family or friends nearby who can teach her to drive. “It’s disheartening,” she says, adding that the cost of lessons increases with fuel prices. “It’s only going to get more expensive. Average prices have risen from £28 an hour last summer to £35+.’
“Spent £530 on test slots”
Like other underdogs in London, when Nino Shankishvili, 34, tried to sit her driving test earlier this year, she couldn’t find places at local test centres. “It was a nightmare,” she says. Shankishvili holds a Georgian driving license and had to take the practical test to obtain a UK licence. Then a driving instructor she had had a few lessons with told her he had a place in a few days and it would cost £170. “At first I wasn’t sure what he meant, but then I realized that apparently instructors can accumulate [book] test dates and then resell them,” she says. “I really didn’t want to pay that much money, but I needed a license because we have a newborn baby.”
Shankishvili took his first test in mid-March, but failed. When she contacted the instructor, he told her the price had increased to £180. “He said the prices went up because of what was going on in the world,” she says. “When I went to check the website it still said £62. I really needed my license so I turned a blind eye to these horrible prices. Shankischvili went through his third attempt in April after paying £530 to book test slots.
“My driving school has closed its waiting list”
Craig Priddy Photo: Craig Priddy
Driving instructor Craig Priddy, 54, says the backlog has forced him to close the waiting list at his driving school because they cannot guarantee someone new will start until 2023. In Hereford, where he teaches, the time for the wait is until mid-December , with short-notice tests being “caught up” by booking applications that have appeared in response to the backlog.
“What we’re getting is people are booking driving tests before they’ve even had a driving lesson. So they will pass on their theory, [book a test] using an app… maybe in September and we expect you to be able to have them ready by then,” he says.
“I think the DVSA aren’t putting as many restrictions on these apps, perhaps as they claim, because there are still students getting tests really quickly.” Tougher action should also be taken against instructors who sell test slots at inflated prices prices, he claims.
Preedy predicts that the backlog will have unintended consequences. “This is a crisis of the future in terms of the need for paramedics, postmen, delivery drivers, lorry drivers, fire engine drivers, police officers – all of these will have a knock-on effect.”
“The whole situation is incredibly stressful”
Photo of Eleanor Harrison: Eleanor Harrison
For Eleanor Harrison, 41, not being able to drive makes school runs with her five-year-old son difficult. She says the walk home from school – 40 minutes usually, but sometimes close to two hours with a toddler – is “lovely in the summer” but a nightmare in the winter: “Walking in the cold and dark with a child with asthma is not great.” says Harrison, who works part-time as a social care administrator, explaining that her husband and a “kind neighbor” “did something together” about the morning school run.
Harrison estimates she spent “over £3,000 on lessons”. She started learning to drive before the pandemic but wasn’t ready to take her test before the UK’s first lockdown in 2020. She had a test booked for February 2022 but contracted Covid; the earliest the next slot he could book was in July. “The whole situation is incredibly stressful,” she says, explaining that she feels “so much pressure to get through before winter.”
Harrison adds: “I’m also angry that if I don’t pass it will be months before I can get another appointment and my theory test could be over and I’d have to retake it. I feel the least DVLA could do is extend the theory test period as a goodwill gesture.
“I see my 14-month-old a lot less than I should”
Despite starting driving lessons in September 2020, Matt Neill, a 30-year-old doctor in Manchester, still does not hold a license after the DVSA canceled his practical test three times. It’s been particularly challenging since he became a father 14 months ago, he explains: “Not being able to drive means I can’t do the nursery drop-off or pick-up, but I also can’t easily get home from late shifts [as there’s] there is no public transport. This means I regularly have to stay on call at the hospital and see my child far less than I should.’
Kneale is now at the point where he would consider paying a higher price for a Test slot. “I’m strongly considering whether I can book annual leave,” he says. He emphasizes the impact the backlog has on his family, saying he spent “maybe two-thirds of the [his] time away from home in the last three months”. “It really puts a strain on relationships and mental health because you’re missing out on valuable time and it puts pressure on your significant other to cover downtime.”
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