Learner drivers who 
fail a driving test will have to wait longer before taking another attempt. Currently anyone who is not successful must wait a minimum of 10 working days before a re-sit. This summer however that period is going to increase to 28 days.
Loveday Ryder who is the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) chief executive, and has never conducted a driving test; suggests that this step will give learners more time to prepare for the next attempt. The idea being that they will then stand a better chance of passing. It’s also supposed to discourage candidates from taking a test before they are ready.
One of the big failings of this idea, is that waiting lists in most areas stretch for many months anyway. So the chances of anyone getting a quick re-test are pretty remote to start with.
Driving Instructor Standards
The problem of candidates taking a test before they are ready however, lies almost entirely with the driving instructors themselves. Many of them teach to a very low standard, they allow pupils to book tests well before they are are anywhere near the required standard. And they also allow poorly prepared drivers to take tests which they should be postponing.
There is one positive note in the DVSA’s change of policy, in that they are allowing potential test takers a longer window in which to cancel a test if they feel they are not ready. They are increasing this from three to ten days.
The DVSA
The agency’s biggest problem when it comes to making decisions such as this, is that it is managed by people who have never been anywhere near a training vehicle. They are not examiners and they have never been instructors. They really have little idea of what steps they need to take to improve the standard of driver training and the resulting standard of test candidate.
Radical steps are needed to overhaul the driver training and testing industry. But the DVSA managers have neither the knowledge nor the power required to carry out this task. In the meantime they pushes numbers around, quotes fact and figures, and occasionally come up with a new website to advertise their latest brainstorming ideas.