Driving Test Cancellations - Why Did The Driving Test Change Back in December 2017?

For years the DVSA were aware that they needed to move with the times as many driver instructors felt that they were teaching subjects that were barely being used once learner drivers passed their driving test. They felt that reversing manoeuvres like left reverse around the corner was one that most people that had a licence for over a decade would claim that the last time they performed that exercise was during their driving lessons. Also, it was common knowledge that learner drivers were passing the driving test yet had never used a sat nav before.

Introducing following the Sat Nav…

When the DVSA changed the driving test in Dec 17 they introduced the sat nav driving. This consisted of following the satellite navigation for around 20 minutes unaided. The idea was that if learners would practice this on their lessons, then they would be a lot more comfortable and experienced doing so when they passed their driving test. For the driving test it is important that learners realise that if they are about to miss a turning because maybe they spotted it late then it is better to follow the road safely than to turn dangerously. By missing the road doesn’t affect the driving test (unless you’ve turned down a road you shouldn’t turn in) and therefore the sat nav will recalculate and redirect the pupil onto another road that would continue onto the same route.

What happened to the 3-point turn?

Despite the 3-point turn or (turn in the road) exercise being a popular manoeuvre that would be used commonly after passing the driving test, the DVSA felt that they needed to make room for more complex manoeuvres like the right pull up reverse. Also, it was felt that the turn in the road was one of the more simpler and less dangerous reversing exercises which could be self-taught when learners passed their driving test.

What are the new reversing manoeuvres for the driving test?

We’ve got the as previously mentioned the right pull up reversing exercise. This is when you pull over to the right side of the road in a safe and convenient place and then reverse back two car lengths. After that you’re asked to drive off being particularly careful to look for traffic on the main road as you’ll need to look quite a lot over your left shoulder for any traffic on the main road not visible in your left-hand mirror.

We’ve also got an extension to the bay parking exercise by introducing the forward bay park. Previously you were only taught to reverse into a bay, usually done only at the test centre car park but now you can be asked to park forwards in a different car park. That is usually done en-route and not at the start or at the end of the test as the reverse bay park was previously asked. Similar to the reverse bay park, you’d need to make sure that all 4 tyres are in the white lines and not touching or over them. If they are, then you’d be expected to correct the manoeuvre by either fixing it on the move or going forwards or reversing out and coming back in again.

The reverse park or (parallel park) has remained unchanged and so has the reverse bay park

The emergency stop has also remained unchanged and it’s pretty much always been a 1 in 3 chance that you’d be asked to do it on your driving test. Once upon a time the emergency stop was asked on every single test but after years of complaints by the driving test examiners that they were suffering with neck and shoulder pain, the DVSA decided to reduce the emergency stop to one in three tests.

The panic from learners back in October and November 2017 to find a driving test before the new test kicked in became unreal and the DVSA were finding that their website couldn’t cope with the demand of hundreds of thousands of learner drivers all looking for earlier driving tests. Luckily our system was and always has been helping learners find suitable driving tests since 2010 so we are proud to say that we were in a great position to help thousands of learner drivers find a suitable test date before the new change took place.

Driving tests can be found online but cancellations are much harder to come by. Try checking the DVSA website at regular intervals and hopefully you’ll find something suitable. If you haven’t found anything that matches your availability or you don’t have the time then you can use us www.earlierdrivingtest.co.uk. Our specialist software will scour the DVSA website morning till night and aims to find you multiple test dates that all suit the criteria you have selected. We have been in business for 14 years so you can trust us to get you that all important driving test.