DVLA Cancel driving test

Quentin

kevmcfad wrote: »

I'm a driving instructor and the DSA just called my pupil 2 1/2 hours before her test to tell her that it had been cancelled............... The DSA do not compensate lost earnings to instructors due to their mistakes. This is one of several issues that infuriates driving instructors. The DSA causes a lot of instructors to leave this business.

When cancelling at short notice, the DSA do compensate candidates for their out of pocket expenses (including an hour and a half's driving instructor's charges), which together with the saving on fuel for not actually using the car would have covered most of your lost income).

Driving Instructors should surely be aware of this, as they are involved with the DSA all the time (as opposed to the candidate who hopefully only gets involved once or twice in a lifetime).

A professional Instructor would have been able to advise the candidate of the DSA service standards so the candidate could get their costs back - and pay your bill!

cajef

Quentin wrote: »

When cancelling at short notice, the DSA do compensate candidates for their out of pocket expenses (including an hour and a half's driving instructor's charges

Driving Instructors should surely be aware of this, as they are involved with the DSA all the time (as opposed to the candidate who hopefully only gets involved once or twice in a lifetime).

When I was a driving instructor the DSA would only compensate the pupil for costs for the time of the test up to 1 hour, any extra time involved such as pre test lessons or travelling to the test centre were not covered, a sore point with driving instructors see post #19 in this thread.

Edit:- If you knew what the DSA were like to deal with you would not want to get involved with them.

kevmcfad

Quentin wrote: »

Driving Instructors should surely be aware of this, as they are involved with the DSA all the time (as opposed to the candidate who hopefully only gets involved once or twice in a lifetime).

The DSA have never listened to the views of driving instructors. This is proven with the latest DSA consultation (which wasn't a consultation at all). We have very little to do with each other. The examiners look down their noses at us and are normally abrupt and unhelpfull. The DSA do not contact us to tell us about any changes in the driver training industry or anything else for that matter. Normally pupils find out things via rumours before we do.

I agree with cajef that I would never have become a driving instructor if I'd know what the DSA were like. Fortunately for me I'm aiming to get away from the DSA and become a full time advanced driving instructor within the next 18 months.

cajef

kevmcfad wrote: »

Fortunately for me I'm aiming to get away from the DSA and become a full time advanced driving instructor within the next 18 months.

I did not have any problems with the examiners at the test centre I used, I found them reasonable to deal with, but I found the DSA were one of the most inefficient government organisations I have ever had to deal with, incapable of communicating with instructors and full of bureaucratic rubbish.

I was a Grade 6 instructor but after four years when my licence to instruct came up for renewal I had enough of their incompetence and left the profession.

Quentin

cajef wrote: »

When I was a driving instructor the DSA would only compensate the pupil for costs for the time of the test up to 1 hour, any extra time involved such as pre test lessons or travelling to the test centre were not covered, a sore point with driving instructors see post #19 in this thread.

Edit:- If you knew what the DSA were like to deal with you would not want to get involved with them.

They must have been secretly listening to the moans, as I say, the candidate gets one and a half hours repaid as part of their compensation.

My point really is it is surely in the interests of the driving instructors to know all about the service standards, so that they can advice their stressed out pupils on the positive aspects of a last minute cancellation, not moan on about not affording to pay for the petrol this week!

cajef

Quentin wrote: »

My point really is it is surely in the interests of the driving instructors to know all about the service standards, so that they can advice their stressed out pupils on the positive aspects of a last minute cancellation

Yes I agree entirely, maybe they have changed in recent years but getting information out of the DSA use to be like getting blood out of a stone and instead of having one compensation package for all, each case had to fill a lengthy form in and it was then decided by some faceless individual on what he thought was merited, so although you could advise the pupil there was never any guarantee as to what they would get.

Quentin

Things are different now.

We will also refund certain expenses that you had to pay on the day of the test if we cancelled your test at short notice, unless it was because of bad weather or poor light. We do consider reasonable claims for:

• any standard pay or earnings you lost through taking unpaid holiday leave (usually for half a day), after tax and National Insurance contributions but not including any overtime or commission payments; and
• reasonable cost of travel to and from the test centre if you were taking a theory test, or the cost of hiring a vehicle for the test, including travelling to and from the test centre if you were taking a practical test. We will refund your mileage if you have used your own vehicle to travel to and from the test centre. We will generally pay up to one and a half hours of vehicle hire. Costs are usually based on your instructor’s or trainer’s standard hourly lesson rate, rather than on a flat rate applied by your instructor or trainer for using the vehicle on the day of the test.

And driving instructors can assist the candidate by filling in the claim for the hour and a half. Instead of having to submit a receipt, the instructor sign the claim form:

a receipt signed or stamped by your instructor or trainer for vehicle-hire charges for the day of the test, based on his or her usual hourly rate and showing their instructor or trainer number, your name, amount charged and the period this covers

;

kevmcfad

I've had several tests cancelled by different examiners at the last minute because they've gone on strike and they've came out and told the pupil the reason they've cancelled but none of them have ever produced a compensation form of any kind.

I tried to look for it on the DSA website without any luck. I tried to phone my local test centre for a better explanation on my pupil's cancellation but the didn't answer and I then decided to pop down to the test centre at 4pm but they were all locked up!

Don't get me wrong - I've a pass rate this year of 70% and I hold advanced teaching and driving qualifications so I'm not some cowboy instructor but what chance do any honest instructors have when the DSA won't cooperate with us?

Quentin

The service standards are easy enough to find.

I would have thought a driving instructor would make sure they had some copies of the booklet in their glove box, and could quote from them verbatim!

http://www.dsa.gov.uk/Documents/leaflets/Customer_service_booklet.pdf

katiekittykat

gems1617 wrote: »

kevmcfad, when the dsa cancelled my driving test at short notice my driving instuctor still charged me for a double lesson. My instructor would have been out of pocket otherwise, i recouped the money i was out with the compensation form they gave me.

In my opinion you still should've charged your pupil for your time and use of car.

The same happened to me when mine was cancelled. I also got it back from the compensation.