Why is there a waiting list for Intensive courses?
Looking at the popular questions asked about Intensive driving courses, or crash courses as they are sometimes know.
- How quickly can you get an intensive driving course?
- Is the driving test guaranteed to come with and intensive driving course?
- Can I complete the intensive course with the driving test on the final day?
Intensive driving courses don’t follow the same structure. Each company or driving instructor has their own version of what an intensive course should be. Some instructors like intensive driving courses, while others loath them.
Therefore many instructors will not entertain the idea of intensives. Those that do will have a different schedule for the duration of their courses.
Some instructors may offer a one week course, where as others may offer the same amount of lesson hours over say 6 weeks.
Some intensive driving courses come with a test on the final day, others might require the student to take the test at a later date.
It’s your responsibility to ask the right questions, and get the answers in writing, therefore you know the course structure, dates and Terms of service.
When the driving test waiting list is only a few weeks in advance, and driving instructors have good availability, you could book a course to start in just a few weeks. But that’s fairly hopeful. Most of the time you would be waiting at least a month before starting your intensive course. And in some UK cities in 2022, the waiting list for intensive driving courses are over a year.
To clear up an age old belief about intensive driving courses, often called crash courses.
Although you book the intensive course with a driving school, or driving instructor, the driving test isn’t taken with them.
The driving examiner is employed by the Driving and Vehicles Standards Agency (DVSA). The DVSA is an executive agency, sponsored by the Department of Transport.
The DVSA carry out driving tests, and approve people to be driving instructors among other duties.
Therefore the driving school or diving instructors who offer the driving course will book the driving test with the DVSA on your behalf, meaning they can control the course date.
To book a driving test, the diving instructor must have the licence number of the candidate, and therefore that licence must be valid. It must also include an in date theory test pass, without it the licence isn’t valid for the driving test.
Driving school or diving instructors and governed by the same rules as everyone else. They don’t get priory booking times, they cannot reserve test dates, and they do not get privileged cancellation dates.
They basically can only book the exact same driving test dates as the public. The only difference is many instructors use a government gateway for booking driving tests on behalf of their students. The gateway basically lets them log in to the driving test booking platform using their own details instead of the candidates.
Therefore if the next available driving test date in your area is a few months ahead, the driving instructor or driving course provider will only have that option available to them. That means if you have selected a one week intensive driving course, the course date will start a week prior to the driving test date which has been booked by the driving instructor.
Over the past few years, many companies sprung up on the internet offering intensive driving courses, or crash courses with the promise of an earlier date. These companies would use an internet bot, which is a software application that was automated to scan the DVSA booking system to track down driving test cancellations.
They would then either sell these cancelations at a significantly higher price to the public, or search the DVSA register to find a driving instructor who could offer to cram driving lessons into a short time frame before the driving test date.
There were downsides associated to buying intensive driving courses from these online companies. The main being trust. These companies only exist in the online space and do not have any driving instructors of their own. Instead they find a test date, and a driving instructor and send the details to the customer.
Often earlier driving tests dates would mean the customer would need to travel to another city to take the course. This resulted in higher course fees, and often meant the customer booking into a B&B or hotel for the duration of the driving course.
There was no come back for the customer either if the driving instructor didn’t turn up, or was unreliable.
Another problem which is out of the control of the booking agent, driving instructor or customer is test dates being cancelled.
The DVSA can, and do cancel driving tests on a regular basis. This is because of weather conditions, or a shortage of examiners due of sickness or being late back from an earlier test.
The DVSA can give you a few weeks notice of cancellation or a few minutes notice. Often driving instructors turn up at the driving test centre with their student, only to find there isn’t an examiner to take them for their pre-booked driving test.
The Terms and conditions of many intensive driving courses will state that if your driving test is cancelled, you are still bound to continue with the intensive driving course whether it’s within a few days of starting, or you have already started the course. This is because you have agreed to book a driving instructors time for your driving lessons.
There have been many complaints made to the DVSA about companies selling intensive courses or last minute cancellations. Some people were paying double for driving test fees, and companies were taking money with out providing a reliable service or a service at all.
In May 2022, the DVSA put a stop to companies using internet bots on it’s driving test booking platform to prevent companies from operating unfair practices.
I hope this information has helped clear up the myths and confusion that surround intensive driving courses.
For more advice contact support@elite-driving-school.co.uk with your question.