Copied letter going to MP’s

Background; • When we went into Lockdown Candidates Driving Tests were rearranged and at a later date the decision was made to suspend appointments and put them on hold. • The DVSA announced that in order to prioritize those candidates and enable them to have the opportunity to get as early appointment as possible, that they would be contacted by email in order of their original booking, with a link to make an new appointment that suited them best. • It also stated that only once all the 'lockdown' appointments had been rearranged, would the booking system be reopened to the public. Actual happenings; • Emails are being sent to the wrong people with incorrect test appointment information and application numbers • The emails have not been sent out in order of the original dates and therefore NOT giving priority to the candidates that were first inconvenienced by lockdown. Breaking the promise of the DVSA. • The online booking system remains closed. • When candidates or Instructors are trying to resolve these issues, emails to the DVSA customers services are not being answered for days, if at all, and if calling, they are on hold for up to or over an hour at times, only to find that its difficult to actually get a new appointment. • In some cases Instructors have resorted to using Twitter to try and get their pupils tests rearranged. • Examiners are not conducting as many tests as possible due to appointments not being filled. All in all this is utter incompetency by the DVSA and a breach of personal data in some cases. There is a back log of 4 months worth of driving tests and with the reduced amount of Examiners able to conduct tests and having had their daily testing capacity reduced from 7 a day to 5 per day it is essential that the booking system is fit for purpose and operating efficiently. This is currently NOT the case. Time is being wasted. Money is being wasted on Examiners salaries whilst they are not operating at their full daily capacity and DVSA customers are not being treated respectfully or fairly. There is little or no support from DVSA customer services. This is having a detrimental effect on the businesses of Driving Instructors which have already suffered financially during Lockdown. It is extremely difficult to organise our diaries and best support our customers to provide the service that we need to in order to maintain a good reputation and relationship with our customers. Quite frankly it is embarrassing. It appears that time and time again the DVSA continues to fail its customers and there is nowhere for any of us to go to report their continued inefficiency, incompetence and our dissatisfaction which is very frustrating indeed.

I hope that you can represent these issues and help to get this appalling mess resolved as soon as possible.