In case you didn’t know, the DVSA are no longer going on strike. It seems the DVSA union have got their way and therefore won’t be increasing testing to 8 tests per day. It will remain at a maximum of 7 learner tests per day per examiner. The union have agreed to postpone any strike action for the next 12 months. The DVSA will conduct more studies and collect more data to establish ways to provide more tests in one day, with this being re-assessed in 12 months’ time.
All of this is subject to a final vote – the general consensus is the union have achieved their objective for now and no strikes will happen in the near future.
Driving test backlog and waiting times
The DVSA are recruiting and training more examiners, though this is a long and slow process. The number of examiners being recruited won’t touch the sides of the problem and, as a result, the driving test waiting times will remain high like this for a long time. In many areas, we are starting to see driving tests appear fairly regularly around 6 months away.
Updates on driving test availability through the app
We will be notifying instructors weekly when we see batches of driving tests appear in your area. This is an extra service we intend to provide you all at no extra cost. It should help you quickly notify your learners who are on schedule to need a driving test in 4 to 6 months’ time. Some areas such as Leeds has a waiting time of around 4 months, whilst many London areas such as Barnet, Mill Hill and Goodmayes have a waiting time of at least 6 months and realistically more like 7-8 months if the DVSA were to release test dates more than 6 months away.
We have been seeing batches released with just 4 to 8 weeks’ notice as well, so when we see these appear, we will notify you through the app.
Planning ahead so your pupils stay committed to their lessons
In order to remain continuously busy, we advise you speak to your pupils to book their driving tests in anticipation that they will be ready. With the recent DVSA standards check implementations, intensive courses for beginners should slowly go out of fashion and it should become the norm that it takes 4 to 6 months to learn and pass a driving test based on 2-hour lessons each week.
Managing your learners’ expectations at the beginning (without being negative) and helping them to pass their theory test early on will mean that everyone is a winner and most learners can pass their driving test from beginning to end in approximately 6 months, assuming they clear the theory test early on.
Free theory training software for your learners
You can sign your learners up to the free theory and hazard perception training through the driveJohnson’s App. To sign a learner up for their free theory training, go to your ‘Active Pupils’ section, choose the pupil, scroll down to ‘Free Theory Training’, add your pupil’s email address and click ‘Submit’.
Please allow us 24 hours to sign the pupil up during office hours, Monday to Friday.
Early driving tests/short notice driving test facility
We have been liaising with a few short notice driving test checker companies to offer your learners a driving test at short notice on your command. Ideally, we want to use this service for learners who fail their driving test with you and need another test ASAP.
This is a work in progress – what we don’t want is learners booking tests at short notice without their instructor’s consent, otherwise it will create a mess and end in disappointment.
Summary and how to succeed
In summary, Covid-19 has caused backlogs and bottle necks in most industries across the UK. Instead of trying to sort these problems out, many industries are learning to live with it and work around it rather than trying to get it back to how it once was. The DVSA is definitely an example of this – they just can’t recruit enough examiners and the current examiners don’t want to do the extra tests.
The best thing we can do now as instructors is come up with strategies to provide the best possible service we can to our pupils. Some instructors will simply tach a learner to 20 hours and, when the learner can’t get a test, blame the lack of tests leading to more gaps in their diaries when the pupil becomes disheartened with their lessons and goes missing.
We need to keep the learners chomping at the bit, help them with the theory training by signing them up straight away, keep pestering them to book their theory, send them the link to book the theory test, give them a heads up when driving test become available and get them to book in anticipation that they will be ready.
With a little bit of help from the office team notifying you weekly with test availability and adding them up on theory training, this will go a long way.
The new progress cards we have released have been designed to help you record and manage the pupil’s progress better and more accurately. On top of that, there is a section for mock tests in there too.
Written by Anthony Johnson
Grade A - 51/51
ORDIT Registered Trainer
