Recent figures from the Quedgeley test centre show that out of last year’s 3,407 first-time test takers only 53% passed, whilst down the road Cheltenham’s All Saints Road centre recorded 1,513 fails – about 54%.
This news isn’t surprising when only half of all practical driving test centres in England and Wales had more than a 50% first-time pass rate. As usual, learners are blaming the test itself – but unusually, it seems that this time they could be right.
The practical test has evolved dramatically since the previous generation took their tests – there are now over 30 million cars on UK roads, which makes driving more pressured and more complicated. There are new laws, new speed limits, more powerful cars… all these contribute to making a learner’s journey to success harder.
What’s more, the number of people breaking the Highway Code has risen dramatically, with learner drivers today having to learn not only to control their own car – which most consider the ‘easy’ part – but also learning to deal with and react to the increased number of driving infractions – speeding, skipping red lights, undertaking and cut-ups. Not to mention the number of people pulling out of junctions right in front of you.
It’s a view that many older, more experienced drivers also share. Driving examiners and instructors, too, agree that learning to drive now is a much more difficult experience than it was even 10 years ago.
Of course, learners could be inflicting some of the pain themselves. The DSA recommends that a learner has 40 hours of tuition time – which in the past was usually adhered to. Now, though, instructors are seeing more learners taking less time to learn and pushing towards their test without completing the suggested number of hours.
In the learners’ defence, however, lesson prices have also changed over the years. In the 1980s, lessons averaged at around £8 per hour. Now they cost around £23 per hour – a vast increase. No wonder most learners are unwilling to pay for the full 40 hours – to do so would set them back around £1000.
So perhaps the Gloucestershire figures aren’t all that surprising – and maybe that’s what we need to expect to see more of. Of course, if tests continue to become harder and lesson prices go up, we could see less people learning to drive in the first place. Only time will tell if that’s a good thing or not.
