It has been announced that DVSA CEO Loveday Ryder is stepping down. The announcement comes at a time of unprecedented test waiting times, ongoing battles with the bots in the booking system, demand outstripping supply for PDI tests, Standards Checks on hold and examiner discontent, amongst other challenges.
A formal announcement has been made in the last hour by DVSA’s Chair, Nick Bitel. DfT Director General, Nick Joyce, has advised that further announcements regarding leadership will be made as soon as possible. See here for full details of the official announcement from DVSA.
Loveday Ryder said: “The past 5 years have been the toughest, and at times, the most rewarding of my professional career.
“The people of DVSA work hard every day to keep drivers and their vehicles safe. They are dedicated professionals doing all they can to improve road safety. I thank them all for their sustained commitment and I am proud to have been their Chief Executive.”
Nick Joyce, DfT Director General said: “I would like to thank Loveday for her leadership, particularly her work leading the DVSA through the pandemic and its subsequent recovery.
“We wish her well in future endeavours and will make further announcements about new leadership as soon as possible.”
DIA CEO Carly Brookfield commented: “Steering an oil tanker like the DVSA, and one overburdened with such demand and supply issues, through an unprecedented crisis like the pandemic, has undoubtedly been a highly challenging role. Whilst DIA, amongst many in the sector, have been highly critical of the agency’s handling of the crisis, we do respect the amount of effort Loveday and her team have put into trying to resolve the issues, particularly the efforts made to improve engagement with the industry. However, after nearly five years of wrangling these challenges, and some of the same, very serious issues remaining, it is time for a fresh perspective and new leadership.”
Joining the agency in 2021, Ms Ryder was quickly plunged into the challenging role of steering the agency through COVID. However, the aftermath of the pandemic has proved to be the bigger struggle for the agency as whole, and the CEO’s role in particular. Many in the industry have felt the agency was slow to get on top of the key challenges, successive rescue plans have been met with cynicism, and are viewed as having ultimately failed to effectively deal with the issues. A case in point is the 7 Point Plan, announced in December 2024 when waiting times were at around 18 weeks – six months after the plan was launched, and waiting times hit 24 weeks. Other criticisms, loudly voiced by DIA, were that measures that did appear to have an impact (such as moving warrant cardholders to frontline testing) were not sustained for long enough.
Loveday Ryder became the Chief Executive of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) in January 2021. Her pledge was to improve services and service delivery, including transforming the agency’s technical ability, in particular the wholesale redevelopment of the driver services platforms and booking engines on which work has recently started.
Before joining DVSA, she was Chief Executive of BPDTS Ltd, a company providing specialist digital technology services to the Department for Work and Pensions. She was previously in the Ministry of Justice, where she successfully served in a number of senior roles in organisational design, change management and programme delivery. Prior to joining the Civil Service in 2006, Loveday worked within a specialist management consultancy delivering business change, performance improvement, and IT programmes in both the public and private sector.
12 thoughts on “DVSA Chief Executive Loveday Ryder exits the agency amidst continuing test chaos”
Not a moment too soon. No ideas, no clue. Until someone with a backbone is installed, the situation is a complete mess.
Driving is a privilege, not a right. It is a highly skilled activity which society and the DVSA have reduced to a right.
Only the applicant (the person holding the licence) should be allowed to apply for a practical test. No companies!!!!!!
Good job she has gone. it’s been a nightmare with her in charge
About time she stepped down, long overdue!
Hopefully they get a grip on the situation and not just talk!
Five years since COVID and still struggling, revise the booking system, stop the bots and cancellation apps, stop learners booking practical test absolutely no where near where they live, no intention of taking the test at the centre booked, only just so cancellation apps can swop if a test becomes available, put a 50 mile radius to where they are living? Can that work?
Loveday Ryder was a very nice person who was open to communicating with people at all levels inside and outside the DVSA. Unfortunately, she was doomed from the start and totally out of both her comfort zone and her depth. She would have made a very good head of IT transformation, but was unable to lead a large and geographically spread out organisation which was more dependent on human beings than IT to deliver its outputs.
I strongly believe that Loveday looked more to IT solutions than business and human resource orientated solutions. She didn’t seem to even consider outsourcing alongside DVSA test provision (I sent her my university dissertation on the subject, which I completed during Covid) and I know that such action would’ve got waiting times below an average 9 weeks within 3 years and certainly by the later half of 2024 if not 2023. They also took a little while to undertake anything which had any positive effect on waiting times (e.g. stopping B&E tests, placing all warrant holders on testing duties and ramping up recruitment although it is barely exceeding wastage).
Despite much pressure on Loveday herself, it is only now (nearly 5 years too late and following much active denial that this was possible) that additional incentive payments for existing examiners have been introduced. All Lovedays ostensibly IT related changes (e.g. trying to stop bots, 10 day cancellation period, etc) have probably had at best a net zero effect on waiting times and quite probably negative effects.
What the DVSA doesn’t need is another career civil servant who is only able to look at the issues internally. It also doesn’t need a management consultant, who from my first hand experience tend to tell you what you told them but for several times the price and in management speak! It needs someone with first hand leadership experience of delivering a geographically spread and cost effective customer service (ie delivering service levels required by the market at a fair cost and not being focussed on keeping the cost low with a correspondingly low service level) which depends on trained Human Resources supported by a business and delivery focussed IT system. They probably also need to pay double to get the right person, as opposed to Loveday from IT. I do seriously wish her all the best though.
Pay me more thain 0.5 £million pounds and I could increase test waiting times by more than 8 weeks!!!!
Good morning, Perhaps the DVSA should consider a replacement who has had a proper job in business!! I had been in Sales and Marketing all my working life – we had to achieve ‘annual targets’!!!
Best,
Ron Richardson ADI
I saw no evidence of her tenure being any thing other than window dressing. As for the leadership role during the pandemic, again no evidence of her taking a proactive communication strategy – in fact it was decidedly “quiet”. So not impressed with her or her organisation.
out of her depth from the outset, and has dragged both the DVSA and it’s professionals, down with her. A disgusting legacy.
Very easy to solve the problem – pay examiners a proper wage and let learners book their own tests.
Some 750,000 migrants arrive every year, many of them legally. Most will want driving licences and come from parts of the world where the exchange programme does not exist. So they will all need tests.
I feel sorry for Loveday on this one because she is on a total loser. No matter what she does to alleviate the backlog, more people are poured into it. She is not alone. Schools, the NHS, housing etc are all in the same boat.
With a population growing out of control, infrastructure cannot keep pace, any more than can the funding. It is as simple as that.
Not rocket science
Charge more for test
Pupils will pay less long term
Pay examiners more
Less leave
More test
Absolutely simple
Next CEO I would like the job for a month deal with corruption
Stop instructors fast tracking
Only pupils booking test
No swapping
Stop blaming bots and take responsibility
Do we need more examiners? Where are the tests?
There is no backlog. There is greed and corruption
We have been telling for free what Dvsa is spending so much money on
Sack the lot of them