A LEARNER driver has hit out at the DVSA after enduring numerous driving test cancellations over the last six months.
Gemma Long, aged 32, eventually passed her practical test in Worcester last Friday (July 28), five months after passing her theory.
She told the Standard she waited 12 weeks for a test in Redditch before being told it was cancelled.
A week later she sat her test for the first time but failed.
“I booked another test and had a 12-week wait, but two days before, it was cancelled again and so I had to wait another eight weeks for the next test,” she said.
Gemma said by this point she had ‘had enough’ so paid for an app which scanned test centres across the country for availability.
She said: “The app was good because it saves you time from logging into the DVSA website, which is temperamental and a time-consuming process.”
Gemma then clinched a test date two weeks later in Redditch but the day before it was cancelled again.
“I just don’t understand why they can’t allocate cancellations sooner as opposed to making applicants wait. Why should we have to depend on an app when they already have the information themselves – especially if it’s at the same test centre?”
The DVSA offered Gemma a ten-week wait for the next test but she said it was an inconvenient date because she would have to take a day off work.
“They then told me to go to the back of the list and begin the application process again.”
At the end of her tether she found more test dates in Worcester, Shirley and Solihull and, after being allocated a Worcester date, she finally passed.
“If I hadn’t broadened my search criteria, I would be waiting for a test in Redditch until October.”
Gemma said the DVSA said it could not comment on why there had been so many cancellations.
DVSA head of operations Phil Lloyd said: “DVSA conducts over 1.7million car practical driving tests each year and only a small number of these are cancelled by the agency.
“We recognise that short notice cancellations are very disappointing for our customers and work to ensure tests can go ahead wherever possible.”
