With driving tests suspended across the UK, and learners just getting back on their feet after several months of lockdown, waiting lists for lessons and tests are much longer than usual. Local Driving School Doncaster have analysed government data on pass rates, cancellations, and learner/instructor ratios across the UK, to reveal the fastest and slowest places to go from road novice to driving pro.
Check out these graphics below to see if your town or a nearby area is featured!
Where Could You Pass The Quickest?
Taunton comes out on top
Overall, Taunton is the best place for a learner driver looking to quickly pass their test. In particular, a learner to instructor ratio of 133 results in shorter waiting times for lessons than most areas of the country. Pass rates and numbers of cancellations are 55.4% and 32.4 – both significantly above average for the UK, resulting in learners gaining full licences much quicker.
Where to look for cancellations
On our top 20 table, Poole, sees the highest monthly cancellation rates, with 67.3 monthly cancellations, followed by Barnsley, and Gillingham, at 54.5 and 54 respectively.
From our rankings, Hull, Bradford, and Cardiff see the largest amounts of test centre cancellations. Top spot Hull sees 118.2 cancellations a month – six times the national average of 19.4. Bradford and Cardiff also receive 88.2 and 87.7 cancellations per month. Cardiff just misses the top 20, coming in at 24th, with Bradford placed at 30th.
Cancellations give those on waiting lists a much quicker way to get a test slot, so consider taking your test in these areas as the queue could move a lot quicker than at first glance.
Where are waiting lists the longest?
London learners lose out
With 9 of the top 20 slowest areas to learn to drive, Greater London leaves learners far behind the rest of the UK. This is largely due to the massive amounts of learners to a small number of driving instructors, and generally lower pass rates.
Tottenham is the overall slowest place to learn, with 539 learners per instructor resulting in huge waiting times for lessons, and lower pass rates and cancellations than the UK average. Overall, Hendon and Mill Hill have the highest ratio of learners to instructors, with an average of 644.6 to 1 in each area.
If you’re struggling to get lessons in Greater London, then look further afield and consider lessons in Chelmsford or Gillingham, where there are more instructors for learners, and better pass rates with more cancellations favour you passing your test much quicker when centres reopen.
Scotland is almost as slow
Scotland has the majority of slow areas to learn to drive in outside of London, with 7 places making our slowest 20. Anniesland, Glasgow, is the worst offender with an average pass rate of 38.4% – 10% lower than the 48.85% average. Dumfries comes in as the next worse place to learn, as only 1 cancellation per month – far lower than the UK average of 19.4 cancellations per month – puts off learners looking to skip the queue.
However, not all is slow for Scotland, as the top five places with the highest pass rates are villages located there. Pitlochry has the best pass rates in the UK, with an average pass rate of 82.8%, followed by Ballater with 76.2%. Lower numbers of cancellations and higher than average learner to instructor ratios do mean these villages don’t make the top 20.
Check Your Area
A great example of being selective with where you learn is Manchester. Hyde, Manchester is the 16th quickest place to learn, while Sale is the 13th slowest area in the UK. This is because Sale has a ratio of 312.6 learners per instructor, with only 5.8 cancellations per month, while Hyde has 174.2 learners per instructor, and 30.7 cancellations per month. Hyde also benefits from a pass rate of 53.90% – all factors far above the UK average.
Where are the longest waiting times outside of London?
Speke slows down
Speke, Liverpool comes out top as the area with the longest wait outside of London. A higher number of learners per instructor, combined with a 33.5% pass rate that’s far below the national average results in Speke coming in as the slowest area to learn.
What is the national average?
The averages from all the areas across the UK are 203.3 learners per driving instructor, 19.4 average monthly cancellations and a 48.85% pass rate.
Overall, while these factors will influence waiting times, the speed at which you pass is really up to a multitude of factors, just like taking any test. If you’re looking to get ahead of the crowd and pass quicker, consider signing onto our intensive driving course, or consult one of our driving instructors and book a few individual lessons to get your feet off ground.
View the full dataset here.