Six month wait for driving test in Southport

Learner drivers looking to take a test from the Southport Driving Test Centre on Part Street will have to wait six months.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused a backlog of nearly half a million test nationwide.

Cancellations website driving-test-cancellations-4all.co.uk says that the current waiting time for a driving test at Southport is 23 weeks.

OTS reporters trying to book a test were unable to find a date before October.

The situation has been made worse this week after the DVSA confirmed that two examiners were unavailable this week, causing the cancellation of a number of tests, only for learners to find they had been rebooked in 7 weeks time.

Loveday Ryder, Chief Executive of the DVSA said: “There are currently 420,000 car tests in the backlog and the national average waiting time for a driving test is 17 weeks.

“We’ll do all we can to reduce the backlog safely and as quickly as possible to help the driver training industry recover. We plan to do this by testing as many people as we can, as soon as we can.

“To help us do this, we’ve already run a successful recruitment campaign for driving examiners. We received over 5,000 applications and are now in the process of reviewing these applications and setting up interviews.”

Theory tests are not subject to the same backlog and bookings are regularly available at the Pearson Centre on Leicester Street. Several websites now offer services scanning cancellations at the site for an earlier booking.

The DVSA is encouraging learner drivers to only book a test when they are confident of a pass, and a ten-day wait between tests has been introduced.

The DVSA did not respond to OTS’ request for comment.