00:04A nerve-racking 40 minutes, months of practice put to the test, all while trying to keep anxiety
00:10from turning into costly mistakes. It's one of the most stressful experiences many of us face,
00:15a rite of passage, some may say, for those aged 17 and over. At the start of this month,
00:21while you can technically book a driving test at any centre, significant restrictions are
00:26being introduced, making it much harder to take a test far outside your local area.
00:31This is Christine, a filmmaker who travelled nearly two hours to Herm Bay to take an intensive course
00:37after spending two years battling a waiting list. Christine lives in London but travelled all the
00:43way down to Herm Bay to hopefully pass her driving test, which some Kent instructors say is slowly
00:49becoming a growing trend. I tried to book a test in my local area but there were no tests available
00:55by the time my theory test would have expired and the only nearest test centre to me was
01:01Kent, Herm Bay. So I booked it just as a placeholder until I could get my own test in my
01:06local area
01:07but my sister, she encouraged me, she was like, why don't you just go to Herm Bay? Why don't
01:11you just go and do your test there? So I thought, why not? It was such a long way and
01:17this is
01:17something so many learner drivers are struggling with. You book a test, you may not pass it and
01:23then you have to wait a year, six months till you can get another test. That definitely did
01:28impact my driving journey but I am happy that I've passed now but I know that other people
01:32out there, they're literally going through the exact same thing.
01:35Last year, figures revealed Herm Bay had a 56.2 pass rate, a stark contrast to London which
01:42sits three points below the UK average.
01:45It is one of two reasons why people are not taking a test in their own area. I think one
01:50of
01:50the reasons is that they genuinely can't get a test so they have to move out of town or
01:57they're not stupid. Pupils are not stupid. They'll go online, they will Google the pass rates at all
02:04test centres. Now we know that the pass rates in Kent are way much higher than London test centres so
02:11I'm not too sure whether they actually can't get a driving test or they're playing it safe and coming
02:18to an area where they've got a higher chance of passing.
02:20I reached out to the driver and vehicle standards agency DVSA for a comment but did not receive
02:26one back. As the brakes are put on long distant bookings, learners may find the toughest part
02:32isn't the road but getting on it as the journey to passing picks up a few extra turns.
02:38Maisie Walker for KMTV, Herne Bay.
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