Lara Olszowska

Can you remember the last time you cried on the phone to a customer service representative? I can. It was February 20 and I was on the phone to the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency (the DVSA). ‘I can see lots of tests have been booked and swapped on your account so they’ve put a black marker against it, which means you can’t book your test online, you can only book over the phone,’ the DVSA worker informed me. ‘But that’s not possible,’ I protested. ‘I’ve only done two tests since 2022 and now I’d like to book a new one. That would only be three tests in two years.’ Then came the fateful question: ‘Have you ever given your details to a third-party booking service?’ I had indeed. Once, in January 2022 through a company called London Intensive Driver Training (LIDT), and once again in September 2023 through ‘a guy’ my instructor knew. My reason? Every time I checked the DVSA’s online booking portal, there were either no available tests near me or the closest test slot was months away.  Then came the fateful question: ‘‘Have you ever given your details to a third-party booking service?’’ And I wasn’t alone. The battle between budding drivers and bots has become a widespread problem across the UK, though it is most pronounced in London where the demand for tests is appearing to spiral out of control. ‘How we book a test? The website is saying “no tests found on any date” for me and I have clicked ‘show more results’ and this seems to be the case for everywhere in the country