Hell plates: inside the UK’s driving test ‘black market’

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? I have spent £1000s on lessons and can’t even sit my test?’ wrote one frustrated learner on the DVSA’s Twitter/X thread addressing the issue of bots last year.

Loveday Ryder, CEO of the DVSA, admitted at a Transport Committee oral evidence hearing in July 2023 that their booking system ‘is end of life’, adding that they’re ‘building a new booking system or are planning to.’ So where is it? 

Faced with a booking system not fit for purpose, I reluctantly parted with hundreds of pounds to secure tests eight weeks in advance as opposed to eighteen. I forked out thousands to fund lessons and made my long-suffering parents give up hours of their time to sit in the passenger seat while we went on practice drives. Yet I still have my L plates on.

Back in November, just as I was getting back in the driving seat for refresher lessons and preparing for my second test in January of this year, the DVSA published their annual business plan. Their top target was to reduce car practical driving tests waiting times down to seven weeks or less by March 2024. But come February, the average waiting time across London, Surrey, Kent, Sussex and West Sussex was still 22 weeks: more than five months. Not a single area of the country met the target, with the lowest waiting time being around 10 and a half weeks in Scotland and northern England, according to the latest figures.

When I asked the DVSA why the wait for a test was so long, I was told it was down to ‘industrial action on civil service pay’ and ‘people’s concerns about not being able to book a test, which has led to a change in customers’ behaviour.’

Securing my January 2024 test did not happen easily or through the DVSA portal. Yes, the DVSA had automatically allocated me a test before my theory was due to expire, but it was in Uxbridge, at 8.10am: a useless slot given I was living in Wandsworth and, unsurprisingly, my local instructor did not operate on the other side of the city. 

My details have been used for 53 applications, allowing learners from Aberdeen to Luton to book tests

I called the DVSA to rearrange and was told there were no available test dates in my local centre before my theory expiration date. Enter ‘the guy’ my instructor knew. I never communicated with him directly, but I fell off my proverbial stool when my instructor said this guy’s full-time job was programming bots to book tests for desperate learners. 

So, I bought into the driving test black market a second time at £169 for a test worth £62, just to avoid having to retake my theory and delay my practical exam even further. I gave them my driving licence number, my theory certificate number, and my home address without batting an eyelid. After failing that test, I went online to try and book my next attempt, but the website kept popping up with an ‘error’ message. And that is what led to the fateful phone call that February afternoon where I learned my account was blocked for having ‘too many’ tests booked using my details – even though I was blissfully unaware for the years it was going on.

I asked the customer service representative exactly how many tests had been booked under my name in the two-year gap between the test booked by LIDT and the most recent test booked by the anonymous associate of my instructor. ‘I can’t tell you a number because it’s pages and pages of tests. If we go through each of them one by one, we’ll be here for hours,’ came the reply.

He was right. This month I received a document containing the number of tests booked and swapped under my details in response to an FOI request. It is 46 pages long and contains 53 application references, showing that learners from Dundee to Aberdeen and Bedford to Luton have booked tests using my details. It appears that during my two-year driving hiatus, LIDT used my details to repeatedly book tests under my name and swap them with other candidates who wanted the slots for triple the price. That was probably how they got me a test to begin with, by swapping it with a test they’d booked on behalf of another candidate.

‘Whenever a candidate cancels their driving test due to unavailability or lack of readiness, our team swiftly moves to reserve these newly available slots,’ said a spokesperson from LIDT when I reached out to them directly. But they also said: ‘the booking process for a driving test necessitates the input of a valid provisional licence number for a candidate who has successfully passed their theory test.’

Every time we increase protection, we are finding that the bots are able quickly to adapt – sometimes within hours

So, whose details are they using to book test slots before swapping them with the candidate who ultimately takes the test? Have they got a repository of desperate learners’ details on file so they can book up cancelled slots and swap in other candidates who want to buy them at a premium to avoid the wait? I asked LIDT for answers to these questions but received no reply. The anonymous man who programmes bots to book tests for a living did not wish to provide a comment for this article.

And when I put it to DVSA that their own booking system and inability to beat the bots was a bigger part of the problem, they said: ‘Every time we increase protection, we are finding that the bots are able quickly to adapt, sometimes within hours.  

‘Every time we increase controls and security, we potentially make the user experience more difficult for everyone which leads to complaints from users – we need to get the balance right and we constantly keep it under review. Ultimately, we plan to build a new system with modern technology that will solve this issue, but it will take time.’ 

Chair of the Transport Committee Iain Stewart MP corresponded with Ryder of the DVSA in February this year, asking for an update on the issue, specifically the progress of the new test booking system and how the DVSA are tackling the backlog. 

She wrote back: ‘In 2022, we began work to replace the Testing and Registration System we use to manage practical test bookings. We await both Cabinet Office and His Majesty’s Treasury approval to progress to inviting tenders from suppliers to support this work. We plan to do this early spring.’ 

‘Throughout this saga my committee colleagues have been hearing from frustrated constituents, young and old, about their trials and tribulations with securing a test,’ Stewart told Time Out. ‘We will continue to hold the DVSA’s feet to the fire and seek updates on how new upgrades to its test booking system are working to fend off touts, and to ensure a more timely supply of test slots.’

Ryder was not reachable for comment, but she may be pleased to know I have at least got my next test coming up. I booked it in March... for September. And you want me to be ‘test-ready’?