Nearly half a million people are waiting for a driving test in the UK

Practical and theory driving tests are like ‘gold dust’ as examiners work through a queue of around 420,000 people across the UK.

The Drivers and Vehicles Standards Agency (DVSA) are urging people to be patient while they take steps to ease the backlog caused by the pandemic.

The lack of test appointments is mounting extra pressure on students to pass first time - or potentially face a long wait to re-sit.

Meanwhile many are regularly trawling through cancellation pages and booking tests which are sometimes hundreds of miles away from their home.

The DVSA say they’re training more examiners and making extra slots available at weekends and out of hours to ease the backlog – but stressed students must be ‘test ready.’

Jamie Powell from Aberdeen started lessons shortly after his seventeenth birthday in March 2020 – a week later the country was in lockdown.

A second lockdown during the start of this year meant his test was cancelled.

He’ll eventually sit his rescheduled exam later this month.

[vtechead]

The wait is driving people up the wall.