Today (20 July) the government has published an open letter to the UK Logistics Sector and announced plans to increase lorry driving tests.

We want to tell you more about our role in supporting this.

Driving test waiting times

We recognise the impact of the pandemic on vocational lessons and tests.

Since vocational testing restarted following the easing of restrictions, we have typically made a total of 3,000 vocational tests available per week compared to 2,000 pre-pandemic.

We have done this by:

  • asking all those qualified to conduct vocational tests
  • offering additional out of hours tests where we can and where there is a demand

We have also been working to develop measures to maximise testing capacity. This includes:   

  • plans to help address the lorry driver shortage and meet the demand for lorry tests by prioritising vocational tests
  • making changes to the booking process to help us allocate our vocational driving examiners more efficiently and make sure that we are carrying out as many lorry tests as possible
  • starting the process of recruiting 40 new vocational examiners, which will help us reduce vocational waiting times
  • updating the guidance which helps candidates get information to better prepare for their vocational test

Further action

The government is also planning to consult on changes to lorry licences and tests.

We will let you know how you can share your views on these proposals when we have further information.

For information about these government proposals and others read the government open letter to the UK Logistics Sector.

Keeping you up-to-date on progress

We know this is a critical issue for the industry and so we will continually measure our progress in reducing vocational test waiting times.

We will report on the progress of the plan to increase vocational driving test capacity times every 3 months, following the publication of the driving test quarterly statistics. This will include the number of vocational tests that have been carried out and the latest pass rates.

We will continuously measure our progress in reducing vocational test waiting times. We will assess the impact of all the actions in this plan.

The plan might change as:

  • we learn more about what’s working well
  • we find out what’s not working as we’d hoped
  • new ideas emerge

It could also change based on government COVID-19 restrictions.

We will keep you updated with progress on GOV.UK, by email and on social media.

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