As many of you will know from the press the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has failed to reduce the practical driving test waiting times in many regions of the UK after the COVID period and in many areas pupils have been searching for weeks with no success, this is due to:

  • Loss of examiners – in the last 18 months, the DVSA has been running campaigns to recruit examiners but is losing more examiners than they are able to recruit, a freedom of information request to the DVSA shows that on the 1 st of January 2023, there were 1738 practical driving test examiners but as at the 30th of June there were 1691 which means that they have lost 47 examiners over this period. Examiners leaving over this period were 343 which is a lot of expertise lost.
  • Higher Demand – Due to COVID and many other reasons there has been a higher demand for tests which cannot be met and despite the DVSA best efforts they were only able to reduce the waiting time from 2023 to 2024 by 0.3%.
  • Apps & Bots – Due to the lack of practical driving tests a new industry has come about where unscrupulous individuals have developed Apps and robots to automatically search for tests. As you will appreciate they are considerably quicker than a human so are able to secure a test quicker than a legitimate person searching. Once the App/Bot has secured a test they charge the individual considerably more for their service, we have reports of individuals paying in excess of £250.00 plus the test fee of £62.00 for a test. We would urge you not to use these services as not only does it encourage and fuel these people but there are also people offering tests slots that do not exist. You can book a test directly with the DVSA at Book your driving test – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) or you could let us do all of the hard work with one of our intensive driving courses.

Here at A Pass 4 U we are doing our up most to organise practical driving courses which include a test as soon as we can but are battling the problem as mentioned above by constantly searching and having great success in securing tests for our learner drivers. Whilst we cannot make any promises on what dates we will be able to secure we do try to get the dates our customers would like. To ensure our intensive course customers are happy with our service we use a simple process and do not ask for any payment until the driving course is arranged. Our process is:

  • First contact with the learner driver – We will explain the process and what requirements will be needed e.g. pupil has passed their driver theory test. All the learner driver details are taken.
  • We then spend many hours if not days searching for a practical driving test in the Southend on Sea area and ensure we have a fully qualified driving instructor available for the training that leads up to the DVSA practical test.
  • Once the above has been confirmed we contact the client to confirm the dates and practical driving test details. If this is agreed by the learner driver we would ask for a 25% deposit of the course amount to secure the course, unless the course is within 2 weeks and then we would ask for the full amount. The payment is taken via a secure online link which is emailed to you or payment can be done over the phone, the choice is yours but you will receive an emailed receipt for your records direct from our bank.
  • Confirmation of the course booking is sent to you in writing so that there is no confusion about the details of the course. Our fully qualified driving instructor will call you within 48 hours of the booking to confirm all of the details and arrange the tuition times during each of the days.
  • Please remember that the courses are normally run with 5 hours training per day, with a short break near the middle. The last hour on the last day is arranged as the DVSA practical driving test. All of our intensive driving courses for Southend can be found here: https://www.apass4u.co.uk/intensive-driving-courses/essex/southend-on-sea/

If you live in the Southend on Sea area there is always a benefit to knowing the roads which all start from the DSVA practical driving test centre which is located at:

The Tickfield Centre
Tickfield Industrial Estate
Tickfield Avenue
Southend on Sea
Essex
SS2 6LL

To give yourself the best chance of securing a good driving test date you may wish to consider a practical test at either the Basildon or Chelmsford driving test centres.

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