'Driving test waits are so long because examiners don't earn enough'

Clearing the backlog in driving test wait times relies on improving pay and conditions for examiners, industry professionals have said.

The government has pledged to provide 10,000 extra practical test slots each month, after transport secretary Heidi Alexander said the average wait time of six months was "totally unacceptable." She promised to double the capacity to train new examiners.

Yet Craig Harris from the Sheffield and District Driving Instructors Association said the difficulties in recruiting and retaining examiners had arisen because they could make more money teaching learners than assessing them. He said: "Examiners used to make a decent wage. Now, instructors make their wages in 14 hours, so why would anyone go and work 37 and a half hours?"

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), a government body, recruits examiners, who are classed as civil servants and therefore unable to speak to the media. Some of them are represented by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, which said there needed to be "long-term investment into training and staffing" to achieve manageable waiting times.

"A long-term solution to mitigating driving test waiting times can be achieved through proper investment into DVSA resources and employees," a PCS spokesperson said. "These include a return to a substantive [permanent or long-term] contract where weekend working is optional and paid properly, at an overtime rate."

The DVSA announced last week it would reintroduce overtime pay, and said it would ask staff in other roles who are qualified examiners to hold tests. It is all in an effort to clear the backlog of test-ready learners by summer 2026 and get the average wait down to seven weeks.

Mr Harris said similar attempts to reduce waiting lists have failed previously, as a "big area of recruitment has gone".  "A heck of a lot of instructors used to be recruited to be examiners, as we thought we'd have an easier life there, but that's changed now," he said.

A quick search for examiner roles through the DVSA shows a typical salary to be just above £28,000 before tax.

Driving instructors tend to be self-employed and work a range of hours, but full-time instructors typically earned up to £40,000 and "even exceeded that" in 2023, according to the AA.

The DVSA did not comment on its working conditions and pay. It noted customers were "not seeing the immediate effect" of measures announced last year, which aimed to recruit 450 examiners and give higher penalties for short-notice cancellation.

Pauline Reeves, DVSA's director of driver services, said there had been "significant progress" on the original plan and the recent announcement would help "accelerate" that plan.

Some learner drivers are taking tests elsewhere in the country due to a lack of slots available in their area.

Gwydion Elliot, a biosciences student at the University of Sheffield, is set to take his practical test in Wakefield in late September. "If it's past six months they don't list it, and there was nothing available for Sheffield test centres at all," he said.

Learners can only book practical tests six months in advance, and they wait on average 22 weeks and three days to secure a test.

"The pressure has really mounted," Mr Elliot added. "It's hard to sit in a test with the knowledge that if you fail, you might be waiting another six months". He said he hoped to find work as an ecologist which would involve visiting field sites far from public transport links. "I'll have a much easier job finding a job in that sector once I can drive," he said.

Instructors are also feeling the pressure of supporting their students through such a difficult challenge, Mr Harris said. "I consider our prices below average at around £35 an hour, but that is still not cheap. If they then choose to only take occasional lessons while they wait, that makes it hard for us to fill our diary. The worst thing is, if they fail a test, they've got a six-month wait again."

While some flights are running as normal, the issues impacted the roads and public transport is likely to be a problem for travellers trying to get to airports.

Spain's Transport Minister Oscar Puente said it was not likely that medium and long-distance trains would resume normal service on Monday.

He said the plan was to resume shorter-distance commuter services as soon as electricity supplies had been restored. Work is also under way to rescue people trapped on stranded services.

It makes sense to add "stop" orders and indeed to call diverted trains during engineering works at various stations. 

It does happen - as an example,  during the recent closure of the St Denys to Fareham line, the SWR Romsey 6 was pulled between Southampton and Romsey via Eastleigh, with the diverted long distance Cardiff to Portsmouth train making the calls at Chandlers Ford which would otherwise have been unserved.

Previous train (13:03) terminated short at Reading.  And it looks like this one can slip through the single line section between Chippenham and Trowbridge between local trains - good.


"Until 14:30"?  No - the disruption to the 14:03 has it being forecast 33 minutes late into Penzance at 19:58 rather than 19:25,  so disruption until 20:00?

Chiltern Railways

F O U R  years to not get to a decision yet.  And, although I know this should require incredulity, I guess it's actually unsurprising

Are we entiltled to ask what we are paying civil servants in the DfT to do with their time?

Cancellations to services between Reading and Newbury

Due to a points failure between Reading and Newbury some lines are disrupted.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Some stations between Reading and Taunton will not be served. Disruption is expected until 14:30 28/04.

14:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 19:25

14:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 19:25 will be diverted between Reading and Taunton.
It will call additionally at Westbury.
It will be delayed due to the diversion and is expected to be 33 minutes late.
This is due to a points failure.
Last Updated:28/04/2025 14:17

Cancellations to services between Reading and Newbury
Due to a points failure between Reading and Newbury some lines are disrupted.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Some stations between Reading and Taunton will not be served. Disruption is expected until 14:30 28/04.

Might it be worth having this in a separate thread?

Going back to route knowledge in 2021 60+ Bristol drivers used to sign Newport Hereford Oxford and Didcot as well as Worcester to Cheltenham. From next month that will be zero.

<snip>

They're struggling with demand and also with the age of their fleet of trains. A roundup from Chiltern on this link.

Mark

https://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/capacity-challenges-2025

Going back to route knowledge in 2021 60+ Bristol drivers used to sign Newport Hereford Oxford and Didcot as well as Worcester to Cheltenham. From next month that will be zero.

It used to be only the top link at Oxford signed the North Cotswolds, I don't know if that has changed since I finished.  The Worcester HSS drivers haven't been replaced as retirements occur. Again I don't know if there has been changes since retiring but the GWR drivers only signed Hereford to Oxford whilst HSS did Paddington to Oxford, Didcot to Worcester via Kemble and Standish to Bristol Parkway.

So there will be shortages from the timetable change.

A bit more about the Railway Clearing House

Text said to be from 1935 at https://www.railwaywondersoftheworld.com/clearing-house.html

From The Metro

Priority seats on London's buses and Underground will be more clearly labelled, Transport for London (TfL) has said.

The transport body has redesigned its seating to have a greater colour contrast and with "This is a priority seat" signs on them. It will be added to new DLR and Piccadilly trains, as well as on refurbished Central and Waterloo and City line trains.

Seb Dance, deputy mayor for transport, is also asking Londoners to offer their seat to "those who may need it more than them".

TfL has said some customers who need to sit down may not always have a "please offer me a seat" badge or Sunflower lanyard. It said its new seat design matched the appearance of "please offer me a seat" badges and the Government's Blue Badge scheme, and aligned with the priority seating design already in place on the Jubilee line.

Allison Peter, deputy chair of TfL's independent Disability Advisory Group, said: "Priority seats are essential for many disabled people, including those with non-visible conditions, as well as older people. They play a vital role in enabling people to travel with confidence and stay connected in London. By looking up, offering our seat, and being mindful of non-visible disabilities, we can help to make public transport more accessible and inclusive."



Previous TfL research looked at how likely people were to get a priority seat if they needed one. It found that while many people who needed a seat got one, it was not always clear when someone needed a priority seat and people were not always paying attention to their surroundings to notice if someone needed a seat.

More than 152,000 free "please offer me a seat" badges have been issued since 2017. They can be used by people with a broad range of disabilities and conditions including chronic pain, respiratory conditions and diabetes, learning disabilities, autism, other forms of neurodivergence and mental health conditions.

You’re in a huff as you hurry through a sea of commuters onto a packed Circle Line train, praying you won’t be late for work (again).

You look around for a seat and, in typical fashion, they’re all occupied – but not by people.

Rucksacks, handbags and ugly briefcases are dumped on empty seats, as their owners lounge on the seat next to them. And of course, there’s no thought to move their bag to floor so you can take its place.

This infuriating behaviour isn’t new, but it’s now got a name: ‘double bagging’.

There’s another subset of London Underground passengers who have been labelled the worst of them all: the ‘barebackers’.

Get your mind out of the gutter – it’s a perfectly innocent term coined by Curtis Morton, co-host of the Behind the Screens podcast, in a TikTok that’s racked up nearly 100,000 views.

Essentially, barebackers – also known as rawdoggers – are people who sit without any form of entertainment and people-watch, staring at other passengers to pass the time.

Not sure what you mean by a Sunday issue. Are you thinking about there being less demand because it’s a Sunday?

A few years ago, I’d have said yes. Now a lot more people travel on Sundays and later in the evening.

It stops at these stations Monday to Fridays, why not on Sundays?

Asking in context - isn't that a Sunday issue?  On Monday to Friday - 21:04 off Paddington to Plymouth making all three of these calls, and also later travel to Westbury available with a Swindon change (21:31 off Paddington) and even later via Bath Spa.