The driving test online booking service reopened on Friday 21 August and then crashed due to the unexpected demand for places. By 8pm that evening the site had been visited seven million times.

In a recent announcement the Drivers and Vehicles Standards Agency (DVSA) said:

Coronavirus has severely impacted our business as usual operations, including by stopping driving tests in March. Since then DVSA have only been dealing with applications for emergency driving tests for critical workers.

Following unprecedented demand for the driving tests booking system with almost 7 million attempts to book a test when it opened, we need to carry out urgent maintenance so people can book tests.
We have to close the booking service.

Accordingly, until 8am on Wednesday 26 August 2020, the booking site will remain off-line. This essential maintenance should enable DVSA to cope with the increased demand from the public.

The services that will be unavailable during this period are:

• booking your driving tests
• changing your driving tests appointment
• checking your driving test appointment details
• cancelling your driving test

It is also worth underlining that the DVSA is only taking bookings for a six week period. On which basis it is unlikely that demand will reduce. Let’s hope that DVSA improvements in their online systems are effective.