New DVSA rules banning third parties from booking and managing practical driving tests came into force today (12 May 2026), but serious questions are already being raised over whether the changes will actually stop learner drivers being exploited.
The reforms, introduced by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), mean that only the learner driver taking the test can now legally book, change, swap or cancel a car driving test. The changes are part of the agency’s ongoing crackdown on bots, unofficial booking services and test reselling activity, which ministers claim has distorted availability and driven up costs for learners.
However, despite the DVSA branding the move as the “end of the road for unofficial driving test booking services”, critics within the driver training industry say the new system may already be creating exactly the kind of third-party market the agency claims it wants to eliminate.
New rules aim to stop profiteering
Under the new system, driving instructors and driving schools can no longer directly manage practical test bookings for pupils. Learners are now expected to control the process themselves, including changes, cancellations and swaps.
The DVSA says the reforms are designed to make the booking system fairer and stop tests being resold at inflated prices. Learners should now only pay the official DVSA fee, currently £62 on weekdays and £75 on evenings, weekends and bank holidays.
Roads Minister Simon Lightwood said the government had inherited “record waiting times and a huge backlog of learners waiting for tests”, while DVSA Chief Executive Beverley Warmington said the measures would “help bring a halt to a system where the use of bots and third parties increases the amount some learners pay for a test and blocks test availability for many others.”
The changes introduced today follow further restrictions brought in on 31 March 2026, which reduced the number of times a booking can be changed from six to two. From 9 June 2026, learners will also only be able to move a test to one of the three nearest driving test centres.
“DVSA may already be failing in its stated objective”
The DIA has questioned whether the reforms are actually solving the problem they were introduced to tackle.
Commenting on the changes, DIA CEO Carly Brookfield said: “DVSA have sent a flurry of DVSA Directs and press releases this week entitled ‘End of the Road for third party test booking services’ with no sense of irony that their ludicrous process for engineering a test swap has actually given birth to a new crop of test booking services offering to help you swap your test for a fee.
“So in the first weeks of the changes, changes that the agency wants us all to believe will mitigate the risks of pupils being exploited by third parties in the process of taking a test, we have DVSA arguably failing in that stated objective.”
The comments come amid growing industry discussion about the emergence of new “test swap” services designed specifically around the DVSA’s updated rules and swap process.
Industry frustration grows over test swap process
Particular criticism has focused on the practicalities of the DVSA’s official test swap procedure, which currently requires both learners, alongside a DVSA customer service adviser, to be involved simultaneously in arranging a swap.
Some instructors have described the process as unnecessarily complicated and warned that learners frustrated by the system may become increasingly tempted to turn to paid third-party assistance.
The reforms also remove a long-standing role traditionally carried out by ADIs, many of whom previously managed bookings on behalf of pupils to help secure suitable dates, times and locations around lesson schedules.
While instructors can still advise pupils on readiness and block out unavailable times in the DVSA system, they can no longer directly control bookings.
More tests, but waiting times remain high
The DVSA says the reforms form part of wider action to reduce national waiting times, alongside increased examiner recruitment and the deployment of military driving examiners.
According to provisional DVSA data, 1,998,608 car driving tests took place between April 2025 and March 2026, an 8.6% increase on the previous year. More than one million tests were passed during the same period.
Despite this, waiting times remain stubbornly high across many parts of Great Britain, with some learners still facing waits of several months for a practical test.
Critics argue that while the DVSA continues to focus heavily on booking restrictions and third-party activity, the real issue remains a shortage of test capacity relative to demand.
12 thoughts on “New DVSA test booking rules take effect today, but critics say they are already backfiring”
Another issue is test candidates unnecessarily providing sensitive information, which isn’t needed for a test swap (e.g. name, address, email, phone, driving licence number), visible to potential fraudsters who could use it to commit identity fraud. Additionally, fraudsters who don’t have an early test to swap could ask for advance payment before agreeing to the swap. To be fair, the DVSA have said they don’t envisage the changes having an effect on waiting times. However, I don’t envisage the changes having any positive impact on fraud and exploitation. Having attended both DVSA webinars on the subject, they seem to have only considered it from their side, with the possible exception of what will at least initially be high demand, and have no regard to or idea concerning what the impact will be on customers.
One could also argue that if driving standards were higher prior to taking the test, then the pass-rate would increase sufficiently so that there would no/minimal waiting time. Here in West Oxfordshire it’s 6-months for Oxford (Cowley), Cheltenham or Swindon and 7-months in Banbury! All newly released test appointments are snapped up in the first few minutes after being released on Monday morning.
Another issue must be the preposterously low test fee. Show me anything else, in high demand, that hasn’t increased in price since 2009. No wonder so many test appointments are wasted by chancers, new drivers that aren’t ready, and people turning up with unsuitable cars. In the case of Swindon alone, 76 test appointments were wasted in March this year. 76 tests. In one month. In one test centre! That’s 2-weeks work for an Examiner.
Perhaps if the test fee was £200.00 people may improve their approach.
It’s a great step by implementing the the rules to cut out the people using bots and blocking all the test dates available BUT still the problem not solved ? Test waiting times the main problem should be look into by the Dvsa because it’s effecting adi,s work lessons. If a pupil get a date in 6 months time they stop lessons to wait near the test time to re start so this way instructors will have no work so please my advice is to block the bots so no one can do block of tests and then resell on high prices the main thing instead ADI,s somehow should be able to book a test for there pupils but JUST one test at a time without charging learners to pay high prices because of the test demand way to high at the moment and many people don’t know how to book and find the dates ? So I think Dvsa should look into this as well please boys should be banned which is great but in others hands dvla should manage more availability for the test dates by increasing more examiners as well. Just a thought came up in my mind so I thought to share with the dvla. Thanks
What a nonsense story, framed entirely by ideology and dogma. This article demonises third party involvement and then idolises driving instructors managing tests for pupils. What is a driving instructor if not a third party? The whole point of the changes should not be to remove third parties from the process: this is impossible. It should be to prevent candidates from booking test indiscriminately, focusing on taking an ever-increasing number of tests pointlessly rather than engaging with proper tuition to make sure they’re ready for a test. It is far too soon to gauge the effectiveness of the changes. The woeful actions of the DVSA are well documented. Their pitifully slow reaction time to developing crises is one thing, but the bureaucratic quagmire of recruiting new driving examiners is another. It is completely disheartening to train a pupil to drive according to best principles of safety when they’re released into a world full of drivers who break the rules and endanger both themselves and everyone around them on a daily basis. There needs to be a wholesale change in the recruitment of driving examiners and the provision of test centers but also in the raising of driving standards for those who currently have a full driving license. Simply bitching about new changes does nothing to elevate the conversation and is a pointless pursuit of publicity. The only section of this text relevant to the title came in the last line. Enough with the clickbait, come up with proper ideas and suggestions or leave the subject alone.
The answer is a such a simple one.
No one can book a test without an instructor’s PRN. Only the instructor that can book it. and not charge anything extra. The DVSA can do spot checks in asking the test candidate if the process was fair.
Any bad actors that abuse the system gets their badge removed due to demonstrating that they are not “Right and Proper”.
A guitar teacher is someone that books the exam. AND THAT ISNT A DANGEROUS ACTIVITY!
I think we need to allow the new system to work for a while or not and then review. How do the third party test swap system get around this new booking regulations? If, as I understand, a booked test links to a particular, identified, checked to be genuine driving licence, how are third parties obtaining so many licences to book tests? At best, they should only be able to swap tests that are legally booked. Is the driving licence acquisition or possible cloning or abuse the issue as well?
I believe what the DVSA is doing now is the best way forward. There is no reason why cutting out the thieves profiteering from the old system and charging triple the normal test rate can be a bad thing. For me, it sounds like those wanting to go back to the old system are those who were profiteering from it. The DVSA can stop employing inexperienced driving examiners who keep their foot on the dual control all through the test, scared for their life’s and thus failing good drivers because they’ve entered a new road with the oncoming car about a 100 metres away and approaching at a slow speed. The experienced examiner would have considered a driver waiting that long as hesitation whilst the inexperienced examiner feels safe sitting next to the hesitant driver. So maybe they should also cut down on the recruitment and just allow only pupils to book which in itself should slow down the booking rate, releasing more booking slots.
The dvsa has lost the plot why introduce this . Pupils don’t always think before they change tests the simpler the rules are the better ..book a test and practice . Everyone is in a rush these days
Were there sufficient Driving Test Examiners’ to carry out tests for Car , ADI Pt 2 and Pt 3 tests, there would be no issues surrounding the booking of these appointments. Yet DVSA, instead of blaming themselves for lack of successful examiner recruitment, blame bots and the reselling of test dates at high prices. This is not the root cause of shortages of appointments, it is STILL the lack of examiners.
If you sit and look for car test appointments from 6am in the morning for pupils, you are providing a service and a moderate admin fee is reasonable and fair, for your labours.
I’ve already heard of students trying to swap tests both being together and the DVSA hanging up on them, one claimed they had to call the 2nd person on their contact number and no call took place leaving both of them frustrated.
As a Driving Instructor I find the new system very frustrating. I have already had a learner driver who booked his own test having to change the date because I was not available. And it is no good for the DVSA asking me to keep my availability times updated. As well as being very busy I would be spending half of my free time updating the timetable.
One way would have been to ensure that when Driving Instructors uses the service to manage the tests they must use their BADGE NUMBER to access the service
This restriction that only the student or the candidate can interact with the test booking also means that close family and friends such as a partner of the candidate cannot if the candidate is not available or able to do this themselves they cannot delegate to another person which restricts how much they can do and when they can do . This sounds like less control and less choice for the person trying to have a test then they had before . I’m already finding people students of mine for whom this is a real issue