![]() ![]() “What we’re getting is people booking driving tests before they’ve even had a driving lesson. In Hereford, where he teaches, the waiting time is up to mid-December, with short-notice tests getting “snapped up” by booking apps that have sprung up in response to the backlog. ‘My driving school has closed its waiting list’ĭriving instructor Craig Preedy, 54, says the backlog has forced him to close the waiting list at his driving school as they can’t guarantee starting anyone new until 2023. I really needed my licence so I closed my eyes to those terrible prices.” Shankischvili passed on her third attempt in April, having paid out £530 in booking test slots. “When I went to check the website, it was still saying £62. “He was like, the prices went up because of what’s going on around the world,” she says. ![]() When she contacted the instructor, he told her the price had increased to £180. Shankischvili sat her first test in mid-March, but did not pass. “I really didn’t want to pay that much money but I needed a licence because we have a newborn baby.” “I wasn’t sure what he meant at first, but then I found out that apparently instructors can bulk test dates, and then resell them,” she says. Then a driving instructor she had a couple of lessons with told her he had a slot in a few days, and that it would cost £170. Shankischvili holds a Georgian driving licence, and needed to sit the practical test in order to get a UK licence. ![]() Like other leaners in London, when Nino Shankischvili, 34, tried to book a driving test at the beginning of this year, she couldn’t find any slots at local test centres. Average prices have gone from £28 per hour last summer to £35+.” ‘I spent £530 on test slots’ “It’s disheartening,” she says, adding that the cost of lessons is increasing with fuel prices. The situation is made worse by having no family or friends nearby who could teach her to drive. When she sat her theory test last year, she never thought it might expire before she got her licence. “Now I can’t even get an instructor to respond to me and I’ve contacted so many instructors and schools that I’ve lost count,” says Chogugudza, who lives in Richmond-upon-Thames, adding that she has found booking a test “basically impossible”. The 24-year-old molecular biology research analyst passed her theory test in April 2021 and found an instructor at the same time, but only completed four hours of practice before contracting Covid, leading the instructor to give her place to another learner. Chiedza Chogugudza Photograph: Chiedza ChogugudzaĬhiedza Chogugudza has been searching for a driving instructor for well over a year. ![]()
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