Dvsa tightens test swaps after 64,500 no-shows
dvsa has restricted learner drivers to swapping practical test bookings only to the three centres nearest their original booking location. The change is aimed at cutting waiting times after 64,500 practical driving tests were wasted last year when no-one turned up.
The booking rule now stops learners from taking the soonest test anywhere in the country and then moving it closer to home. Last year, 1,998,608 driving tests were booked in the UK, and 3.2% were wasted.
Emma and Donovan Smith
Emma, a learner driver in West London, said she had been waking up at 05:30 every Monday to try to book a test, and now has one in seven months' time. She has been learning to drive there for nearly a year.
She said: "Some of my friends who need to drive for work were booking tests at test centres not local to them in areas that they hadn't really driven before... just so that they could get the test and just try and pass as fast as they could". Emma also said: "I'm then paying for lessons every week, which is fine, it's good to have the practise, but when you've got so long until your test, it's just a little bit of a waste of money and a massive time burden".
Waiting times in Britain
The average wait for a practical driving test across Britain is longer than five months. DVSA figures for April 2026 put the wait at 22.7 weeks in England, 22.9 weeks in Scotland and 17.3 weeks in Wales.
Donovan Smith, Emma's instructor, said he had used his local test centre for 10 years and at one point did not have a test there for six months because none of his students could get one at booking there. He said: "Effectively, you had people booking tests in Scotland just to get the date and then changing it to London when one became available".
Reseller bookings
Some driving tests were booked by third-party resellers using bots with the intention of charging inflated prices, and some of those bot-booked tests could not be sold. Smith said the new rule would "reduce people booking tests that they have no intention of taking" and "free up a bit more space on the booking system".
The restriction leaves learners competing for nearby slots instead of using swaps to bypass their local queue, while the waiting times in England, Scotland and Wales stay well above five months in the latest figures.
