Dvsa Reviews 222

This has got to be the worst website I have ever seen in my 35 years of using the internet. It's so full of bugs now they give you a queuing system and after waiting and waiting it says thank you for your patience and make sure you wait more then a message comes up saying your code has been used you have to start again. After doing this 10 times and from two different computer systems I have finally given up. Back to paying driving instructors 150 pound or more to book a test for me.

Thank you Jesus 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 I passed the test on 1st attempt on 7th August 2025 Morning and honestly i’m so grateful to Mr: Jack, I was so nervous before the test and he made me feel so comfortable throughout the test.
From the beginning of the test he made conversation with me.
I genuinely had such a wonderful experience and I forgot I was doing a driving test! It felt like driving with a friend. I couldn’t have passed if he wasn’t such an amazing and calm examiner. He made every instruction clear, and he was patient and kind to me throughout the test.
I hope anyone who does their driving test at Pinner test centre gets Mr: Jack as their examiner. Honestly he is exactly how an examiner should be.
Thank you so much sir Mr: Jack, I’m forever grateful :) 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻.
(Special thanks to Pav Driving school, My Driving learning instructor Uncle, Without the professional help you gave me I would never have been able to reach my goal of passing the Uk Driving practical test). 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻.

Spoke to a woman called Helen at IRDT. After going through an issue with her. Which was difficult at the time to sort out. But we could have sorted with some patience and communication .

Some of Helen’s response throughout the convo:
‘I’ve already explained to you how to do this’ ‘I’ve already explained this to 4 other people today’ ‘I tell you what, I’ll get someone younger to do do this, I’ll pass it over’. ‘I can’t help, you should just email’. At one point i was retrieving an email and I said sorry, it won’t be a minute, it was sheer silence and her unhelpful response was ‘Your driving school should be helping you with this’. When in fact it was a technical glitch on DVSA end. I won’t be passed around and further delay my start date. I felt like I needed to explain to her professionally, what on earth are you doing? This is embarrassing. You get better customer service at B&M Bargain. Please listen to the recording. It was awful.

DVSA if you ever read this. I had my call 13:55 today. Went through option 25. My Number ending 680. If you record calls, you’ll want to hear this one. For your training sessions…

The receptionist was just rude and abrupt, she clearly doesn't enjoy her job and that's okay, find another one.
Voiceover, changes from male, to female to a different male voice - what's that about!? Looking at how we can make a complaint, let me know cos that's ridiculous!

DVSA Herne Bay is awful! Cant get a test, no support for people with autism or anxiety! Outdated system run by people who should be in a home! The other issue is they have pathetic meetings to improve things but they dont do anything as they cant decide or try anything out. For some reason these examiners are blind that 90% of drivers do not follow the rules and want to assess a learner on rules that have been over exaggerated by these outdated examiners who never were tested with the exaggerated rules when they started but feels others should go through their system. It's all a con by the government to take money from families. They like to milk the people, They are completely unfair and the examiners here will make incredibly hard for you to pass, they will break the rules for themselves also. Id avoid taking your test here.

Pa*l is a joke, known as picky Pa*l. He deliberately sets you up to fail, makes up new rules as he goes along then tells you after he fails you about the new rule. Unsure if he is mentally well! Seems to hate new drivers and clearly has a grudge and hatred. Not a nice man at all.

Ju*lie the manager is a liar and makes up stories and fails to tell the whole truth watch out for her! She agrees that during the tests examiners can talk to your instructor and have a nice chat about random crap which is essential, she allows her examiners to behave like animals.

Another goverment failure with idiots in charge!

What the difference between a driving examiner and a tory politician? Nothing they're both corrupt.

I had my driving test on the 24th of July 2025 at 8:10 AM, but when I arrived, I was told my booking couldn’t be found. It was incredibly stressful and confusing, especially on such an important day. My examiner — who had no fault in the situation — went above and beyond to help me. He called the office, tried to sort things out, and when his original 8:10 appointment didn’t show up, he asked his manager if he could take me instead.

Thanks to his kindness and effort, I was able to do my test as planned. During the test, he remained professional but also very human — calm, reassuring, and warm. He made light conversation at the right moments and helped me feel grounded when I was clearly in my head. It’s obvious he has years of experience and genuinely cares. I feel so sad I was overjoyed I forgot to ask for his name. But he is based in Kettering - I tested in Wellingborough.

I believe he played a huge role in helping me pass, and I’ll always be grateful. If it were someone else, I might’ve been turned away. Instead, I got the chance I had prepared so hard for — and I passed on my first try. Thank you so much.

Had a ar go for an mot and failed. Examiner gave failed sheet with all brake test readings saying needs front discs and pads, ok so replacing new parts at so called fault booked a retest car passed strangely showing the same readings on the brake test that the last examiner failed the car on failed?. Is the test center in Belfast have faulty equipment or do they have an inexperienced examiner ?. Or do they pass who they want to?.

NO TEST AVAILABILITY

Mark and Chris took me for my tests MOD 1 and 2.
Mark your amazing , funny and able to put anyone at ease. Continue doing a great job

Chris - such kindness and gently spoken and even thou I failed first time let me cry and then told me where to improve and next time I had it - great news

Professional approach by the examiner Mr. Joe made my driving test today at the Greenham test center a memorable experience. Right from the beginning Mr. Joe was able to make me comfortable and steady despite the nervousness that any candidate gets on the test date. And Mr. Joe took extra time to brief me on the mistakes and how such mistakes can be avoided to make sure other road users are not affected at all. The test started and ended on the dot and all together it was a good experience. I wish to register my gratitude to the center management and to Mr. Joe for the services rendered.

Absolutely useless. No chance of booking a test. Advised to 'keep calling and hope someone cancels as I call'.

I was taking my lorry driving test when the examiner began shouting at me and even swearing in Polish. This caused me a great deal of stress, and I failed the test as a result. I reported the incident to the DVSA and requested a different examiner for my next attempt, as I no longer felt comfortable with the same individual. Unfortunately, they refused and told me that changing examiners was not an option.

During the second test, the same examiner remained calm and I did eventually pass. However, the stress caused by the first experience affected me so deeply that I’ve never felt able to drive a lorry since.

I submitted a formal complaint to the DVSA, which they initially dismissed, insisting their staff are professional and would never raise their voice. I wasn’t satisfied and escalated the complaint multiple times. Eventually, the examiner admitted, “OK, maybe I did raise my voice slightly” — a far cry from what actually happened. Sadly, it became clear the DVSA would back their staff no matter what, even at the cost of honesty and public trust.

This has been a deeply frustrating and disheartening experience. I’m relieved I no longer have to deal with them and would strongly advise others to avoid the DVSA if possible.g

A Call for Urgent Reform: Systemic Failures and Exploitation Within the DVSA

It should not take between 3 to 7 business years to book a practical driving test in the United Kingdom. This isn’t just a backlog, this is a systematic failure and, at worst, bordering on a fraudulent exploitation of learner drivers under the guise of a government service.

In my case, after a 5-year wait, I finally secured a test at the Colwick test centre, not because it was convenient, but because it was the only option available, even though I do not live in Nottingham. I had to spend £900 on local driving lessons in Nottingham in addition to the £4,989 already spent since 2020 due to the complete lack of test availability across London and the South East.

During my test, the examiner Ed instructed me to perform a reverse park on a dipped curb in front of someone’s driveway, an arguably inappropriate and confusing location. The result? A failure marked by what I believe was subjective, inconsistent judgment a power examiners can wield without accountability, often at the expense of candidates’ futures.

My driving tests rusts are below:

Your serious faults
-Reverse park (road) – Control
Your driving faults

Your driving faults
-Control – Steering, 1
-Following distance, 1
-Reverse park (road) – Observation, 1

This issue is far bigger than one examiner or one test. This is a deep-rooted, systemic problem within the DVSA. For the past five years, the DVSA has knowingly allowed instructors and third-party brokers to bulk-book tests, only to resell them at extortionate rates to desperate learners sometimes at three or four times the official cost. The fact that the DVSA has done nothing meaningful to stop this practice raises serious concerns about whether the agency is indirectly profiting from this black market.

Let’s be clear: if this was a university, and only 40-50% of students consistently passed while the rest failed regardless of preparation it would trigger a full investigation into academic malpractice or institutional failure. Yet the DVSA continues with impunity, protected by bureaucracy and devoid of oversight.

This is not just poor service this is systemic abuse of power that punishes ordinary citizens. It disrupts lives, delays careers, and, in my case, prevents me from supporting a disabled family member who relies on me for transportation to critical medical appointments.

The DVSA has allowed a toxic, profit-driven culture to take root within a public service, and thousands are paying the price emotionally, financially, and professionally.

This isn’t about failing a test. It’s about a rigged, failing system. And until serious reform takes place starting with banning bulk bookings, increasing test availability, and investigating pass rate manipulation I have no choice but to rate this system a 1 star. Frankly, it deserves far less

I gave my practical driving test at Wellingborough. The examiner was called Baz. He was a thorough professional. He made me feel completely comfortable. Also had light conversations to make me feel comfortable. He had over 20 years of experience as an examiner. He understands our tensions and ensures us to just follow the rules and have proper awareness rest should be fine. A very pleasant person.

So hard to get a test, doesn’t help when people are booking for test centres no where near where they live, you should have to put your postcode in and only be able to book at centres near where you live, not fair on those trying to book a test at their nearest test centre when people from miles away are just booking at any test centre, I also feel that only the student should be able to book their tests? Not the instructor, especially when some instructors are buying loads of tests up and selling them on for more money and people selling tests by third party, Covid was 5 years ago, you should have cleared the backlogs by now surely. It’s a joke, especially when I am test ready like some others and we can’t get the tests

MSVA online application system. The process now requires you to pay first. Why? because they reject most applications. I have tried 3times to upload one MSVA application form, paid £85 each time. 3 rejections. They write me rejection emails addressed to a name I didn't even enter on the form.

The telephone support line is just as bad. it is just call centre staff who have no clue about rejections or applications. Waited ages then she gave me no credible answer and just said would've should've. Totally rubbish system.

The practical driving test is notoriously unfair and harsh. I’ve had my driver’s license for 13 years in another country and needed to get the UK license so I could drive myself to and from work. It’s been a year since I’ve taken my theory test and it’s been an unpleasant cycle of waiting long periods for a test and going broke spending money on lessons and tests just to fail on a single fault that’s made out to be worse than it is. I hate it here.

DVSA is a scam and fraud.
Their practical tests are not fair. They are a fault finding exercise. Their examiners are fraudsters and scammsters and that's how DVSA want them to be. They are rude, intimidating and deliberately misguide and make learners uncomfortable so they make silly mistakes.
They have connections with the instructors and driving schools and they sell the test dates to them, which the instructors sell to desperate innocent public.
I paid £100 to an examiner in London who also runs his own driving school. He made sure I failed so I would go to him again with £100.
When people don't find test dates, can you imagine these fraudsters can find a date in 2-3 weeks?
Furthermore, the DVSA have changed the cancellation rules so they can keep their money.
It's a scam!! What's even worse is that you can't avoid it.

I went to the DVSA theory test centre on Duke Street Liverpool. Phil, the security man ,was an absolute legend. He made me feel more relaxed and I passed my test👍🏼