“If you fail, you know you’re going to have to keep paying”
“It was double the cost. They know how desperate people are, don’t they?”
For learner drivers eager to pass their practical tests, managing to nab an appointment feels like an ever-growing headache.
But dodgy driving test sellers are now ‘exploiting’ learner drivers and flogging appointments for more than double their usual price amid the country-wide backlog, the Manchester Evening News has found.
In May, the UK’s driving test backlog reached a new high, with 631,472 future practical driving tests booked as of the end of the month, according to official Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) figures. Analysis by the AA Driving School showed the average waiting time was 20 weeks in February.
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The average waiting time for a car practical driving test for the UK as of the end of June 2025 is 22.3 weeks. Car practical test waiting times remain high due to ‘sustained increased demand’ and ‘reduced learner driver confidence’ in the availability of driving tests, the DVSA said.
This has contributed to a ‘lasting change in booking behaviour’, with some learners choosing to book their test much earlier in their learning journey and before even taking lessons.
Learner drivers are resorting to paying more for last minute tests(Image: PA)
Brokers are now effectively block booking appointments, often by using driving instructor’s official Personal Reference Numbers to access available slots, which can be sold at a marked-up price. Details are then changed on the appointment to match that of the new customer.
Sellers are promising slots in a matter of weeks or even days, instead of the months-long wait many are forced to endure. Others are panic booking their tests without being ready in order to score an appointment.
The Government last month launched a consultation on amending the driving test booking system, in an attempt to stop bots mass-booking new slots so they can be resold on the black market for inflated prices and considering who should have the access to book appointments.
But, the process of re-selling driving tests is not currently illegal, despite the DVSA admitting the process can ‘exploit’ learner drivers eager to get their full licence. The agency is continuing to encourage learners to only book tests through the official government website.
“If you fail, you know you’re going to have to keep paying”
The M.E.N’s Miranda Pell managed to get a test with just nine days notice in Didsbury earlier this year. Booked via her instructor, she paid £137 for a test during the week which should’ve been priced at the flat rate of £62.
She initially booked a practical test six months in advance, without knowing whether she would be ready, just to secure an appointment.
The M.E.N’s Miranda Pell had to pay double the price for her last minute driving test(Image: Miranda Pell)
“I started having the lessons last December, and at the time the nearest slot available was July, so we booked it” she said. “As I was progressing, my instructor felt I was ready and was able to get one last minute with nine days notice.
“It was double the cost. They know how desperate people are, don’t they?
“It’s crazy that learners have to guess when they are going to be ready just to get a test appointment. In an ideal world, people should be able to book them a month in advance when they feel ready, not six months.
“But with the wait times, the pressure is higher. My instructor kept telling me I was ready, but the pressure of failing would make you feel like you had wasted someone else’s opportunity.
“It’s an insane expense. There’s the lessons, which are £45 an hour, then the theory test and the practical test. What was going through my head was, I’ve spent £130 on this. If you fail, you know you’re going to have to keep paying all this money.
“Because I had spent all that on one slot, it felt like more pressure to pass. It’s so difficult, but because it’s happening to everyone trying to learn we have normalised it.”
The M.E.N joined a Whatsapp group for last minute slots, where flare messages were sent to members of channels offering the appointments with day’s notice across the UK.
Messages were sent to Whatsapp channels
In another message chain, we spoke to a reseller flogging tests in Greater Manchester for £100. They openly admitted taking £38 of profit if we were to book the appointment, in the first week of August.
Brokers make profits from the re-selling of last-minute tests
Such is the desperation to find an appointment, dedicated Facebook groups with tens of thousands of members have also been set up to find last-minute cancellations or swap test dates, with sellers also attempting to flog the priced-up appointments on those forums too.
“They are making so much profit”
One driving instructor, who serves both Hyndburn and Bury, said the issue of test slots being block booked means he is often left with no available appointments for his own legitimate students.
He said the young learners are being exploited by what has become ‘big business’, with many left with no option but to fork out up to £300 for a test slot through an unofficial broker company out of sheer desperation. He is calling on the DVSA to overhaul the entire booking system to curb the growing crisis.
Learner drivers are being ‘exploited'(Image: PA)
“They are making so much profit,” the instructor, who asked to remain anonymous, told the M.E.N. “People should not be forced to use these alternative sites or dodgy chats just to pass their tests. It’s wrong and immoral.
“This is a public service. It’s not like they can go somewhere privately. They are selling these tests at £250 or even £300 so it’s become big business. I look at it as though the students have paid enough to learn to drive, and the test is the final part of it all.
“There should be some sort of legislation that prevents the re-selling of tests, and for there to be some deterrent. “
The instructor, who usually teaches around 30 students, says that the majority of test slots are being booked through a portal only accessible to qualified instructors, which allows for the details of the learner to be changed. He said he was even approached by a broker who offered to pay him in exchange for his details to access appointments.
The appointments are purchased in bulk at £62 each and are then advertised in Whatsapp chats and Instagram profiles for more than double the cost.
A recent screenshot obtained by the Manchester Evening News showed a list of various dates and times for Blackburn with Darwen and Bury test centres with just a few days notice. Numerous slots were available for the same time and date, indicating they had been block booked to then be sold on.
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The DVSA admitted the high waiting times for appointments have ‘led to a rise in automated bots that exploit the service’ which results in the reselling of test slots at inflated prices. Particularly by using the system designed specifically for approved driving instructors.
The terms of agreement for the DVSA booking service states it must not be used to book tests on behalf of other learner drivers not using their specific business, by using driving instructor’s details that don’t belong to them, or using robotic applications to search for available slots.
The Online Business Service (OBS), the online service driving instructors use to book and manage tests for their pupils, has strict eligibility criteria. The business service agreement for this specifies that service users must not use robotic applications, data mining, or similar data gathering and extraction tools to search for available test slots.
“The only ways they can get hold of appointments is if they are genuine cancellations which are luckily picked up in time, or the instructor log in has been used to access the back end of the DVSA website,” he explained.
“What this means is, I could book a test with a provisional licence number under one name to secure the booking, but could then sell it for double the money and just change the details.
“It’s also causing a massive issue for us as instructors. I have two students who are ready to take their tests, and logged on at five past six in the morning to find a slot in Bury or Blackburn as they are released 23 weeks in advance, and they had all gone already. They must use some sort of bot system to book them all so quickly.
“Some of them will be genuine instructors who spotted them before me in the queue and genuine bookings, but then you see the tests become available in days or weeks time in these groups with multiple slots at the same time.
“That would leave my only option as joining these Whatsapp groups or pages and paying £250 a test.
“Because learners are desperate and know they are going to wait 20 weeks for a test, they book it early and try and go for it. But the pressure to pass is then higher than ever before, because if you fail, you then have to either pay an extortionate amount or wait another 23 weeks.
“They then may need more lessons in that wait time, at a cost of £35 or £40 an hour. The cost implications of failing are lot higher, so this is just desperation. They become stuck in this vicious cycle.
“The DVSA should shut down the driving instructor booking system. If they did, these companies would suddenly go bust as there would be no way of them booking and swapping over names.”
What the DVSA said
In January 2023, the DVSA changed the terms and conditions for using the booking service to help prevent anyone from selling tests at profit. Between January 2023 and 2025, the DVSA issued 350 warnings, 792 suspensions, and closed 813 business accounts for misuse of its booking service.
On July 1 this year, the DVSA made further changes to the terms and conditions. Businesses who have had their online accounts closed for booking violations will no longer be able to swap test bookings through the customer service centre.
Driving test sellers are now ‘exploiting’ learner drivers and flogging appointments for more than double their usual price(Image: PA)
Currently, around 34 percent now book their car driving test immediately after passing the theory test—often before taking any practical lessons, just to secure an appointment.
The body says it does not ‘run, approve or endorse’ any cancellation finder apps or services. Any tests booked outside of the official booking site could be a scam and may result in the learner driver not having a test slot and losing their money.
Enhanced bot protection technology is also deployed to help stop automated systems from buying up tests unfairly. However, these applications are constantly evolving and changing and becoming difficult to monitor.
The DVSA recently ran a consultation to inform the next steps on improvements that can be made to the test booking system, including to prevent the block booking of tests, which closed on July 23.
The consultation asked for views on who should be allowed to book and manage driving tests and if the body should limit or remove the ability to swap tests between different learners or change test locations.
A spokesperson said: “DVSA’s consultation on improving car driving test booking rules (which closes tomorrow, Wednesday 23 July) will be used to inform the next steps on improvements we can make to the test booking system so it’s easier and fairer for everyone.
“GOV.UK is the only official way to book your practical driving test, and we urge people to report any social media channels or posts offering unofficial test slots or bookings to the social media network. We will take decisive action against those who misuse the booking system to exploit learners.”