Students are at risk of a ‘driving test black market’ where scammers offer early booking places for four times the standard price

Students are being exploited by a ‘driving test black market’ as long waiting lists for practical tests continue and places have become hot commodities.

Given the huge demand, trial bookings are now being sold at inflated prices of around £200 through third-party websites, exploiting struggling students desperate to become qualified drivers.

The RAC has warned provisional license holders to be aware of “misinformation” from fraudulent websites and avoid giving out personal details.

Since January 2023, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), responsible for driving tests, has issued 283 warnings, 746 suspensions and closed 689 businesses for misuse of its booking service.

However, the RAC has still found many unofficial sites offering booking places for around £200 each.

This is almost four times the standard price of a practical trial place, which costs £62 on a weekday or £75 if a student books for a weekend.

Drivers should only book a driving test through the official government website, and never book or be advised of available places through a website, the RAC says.

It comes as the backlog of driving tests, built up during Covid 19 lockdowns and banned testing, remains at around four and a half months in England and Wales.

Some desperate students are doing everything they can to get early exam slots, even if it means traveling across the UK to more remote and lower-demand sites.

A bit like third-party concert ticket scams, fraudulent sites use robots to book test slots faster than a human would.

These spaces are then resold at overinflated prices or through paid services that offer to alert users to try cancellations in their local area as they become available.

Even though the DVSA has clamped down on these sites, the RAC has still found third parties selling many slot machines through encrypted WhatsApp chats.

Sneakingly, marketers use the “disappearing message” feature so that conversations cannot be traced.

Other third parties are using ‘cancellation alert’ schemes and apps to charge users a one-time fee to receive an alert each time a space becomes available before their original trial.

While these sites require legitimate proof of a DVSA test, registration fees can still cost drivers almost double the amount of the official test. Some ‘VIP’ packages are advertised for up to £117.

There is also concern about the theft of personal information, as happened to a freelance journalist.

Lara Olszowska was a victim of this and told the RAC: ‘I bought black market driving tests at £169 for a test worth £62, just to avoid having to re-take my theory and delay my practical test.

«I gave them my driving license number, my theoretical certificate number and my address without blinking. After failing that test, I went online to try and book my next attempt, but the DVSA website kept popping up with an ‘error’ message.

“That led to a fateful phone call with the DVSA in which I found out that my account had been blocked for having ‘too many’ tests booked using my details, even though I didn’t realize over the years it was happening.

“A company used my data to book exams in my name 52 times and exchange them with other candidates who wanted the places for three times the price.”

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “Definitive action needs to be taken to stop ‘bots’ booking tests and then selling them to desperate students for incredible amounts of money.

‘This leads to genuine places being wasted and students who are ready to sit their exams missing out and having to wait months for the chance to become qualified drivers. It’s no surprise that some students end up booking exam slots before they are ready.

“It is also very wrong that real people who are actually trying to book their exams are being treated as if they are ‘bots’ because their details have been stolen by scammers.”

How to avoid scams on test reservations

As the RAC advises, always book directly through the Government website rather than through a third-party “black market” site, which often contains false information such as how often you can book your exam of driving.

Make sure you do not sign up for alerts or reveal personal details.

Be aware that scammers even recommend their sites on forums like Reddit and Mumsnet in threads where students express frustration with the booking process.

Speaking from experience, Olszowska also said to always book through the DVLA (website or phone) and recommended that if you have to wait months, plan backwards with your instructor so you know you’re more than ready to pass when exam time comes. . the date arrives.’

The length of the country where students are going to take the tests

In August, This is Money reported that multiple freedom of information requests to the DVSA by car insurance company Marmalade over a six-month period revealed that students traveled 48 per cent further to take their driving test in 2023 compared with 2019.

The average distance traveled from home to a testing center increased to 12.33 miles in the most recent full year (2023), compared to 8.33 miles in 2019.

And the situation will get even worse in the future, as the distance will increase by 10.3 percent each year.

After an in-depth analysis of more than six million driving test records, Jam Discovered students could end up having to travel up to 25 miles (24.49) on average for an exam in 2030, a 194 percent increase from 2019.

In 2023, one student traveled a staggering 647 miles from Exeter to Shetland to take their practical exam, while another traveled 633 miles from Folkestone to Shetland.

Accumulation of driving tests explained

Continued delays since testing centers had to close their doors in 2020 due to Covid were attributed to a “post-pandemic delay.”

However, for In the summer of 2022, more than half a million people were still waiting for a test, which represents an increase compared to the delay due to the pandemic compared to 2021, which was just 500,000.

But despite DVSA moves to increase testing capacity and Parliament being assured that pre-pandemic levels would return, average waiting times worsened or stayed the same at 45 per cent of testing centres. evidence.

And in March, three-quarters of driving test centers still had average wait times of more than six weeks.