UK drivers' agency shrugs off claims of week-long booking site smashes, blames browser configs

Agency insists everything is working fine, even though users spend days failing to load it

The DVSA's driving test booking system has spent the week offline, according to frustrated users.

Readers tipped off The Register that the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) page for changing existing practical driving tests has been failing to load, either throwing connection errors or not responding at all. When we tried to access the webpage, it initially served up a "you look like a bot" message, and then nothing at all.

"It now simply refuses to accept any connections," one reader told us, saying the problem shows up across different devices, networks, and browsers. They added:

If you go here: https://www.gov.uk/change-driving-test and click "start now", you'll be taken here: https://driverpracticaltest.dvsa.gov.uk/login.

And the page never loads.

Over on Reddit, others report the same: the page won't load in Google Chrome or Safari, but flip over to Mozilla Firefox and it lets you straight in. We checked, and yes, that workaround for some reason holds.

The DVSA, however, says the system works, just not for you.

"There may be problems with certain browser set ups… [but] we can think of no current error with our booking system that would allow certain browsers, but exclude others," a DVSA spokesperson told The Register, adding that both they and the agency's technical team were able to access the system across multiple browsers.

"They agree that it must be down to individual browser settings," the spokesperson said. "The booking system is not 'unavailable' and there's no 'outage'. My advice is to speak to the contact centre about individual browser settings."

That explanation may raise eyebrows among users who have spent the week refreshing a page that refuses to load regardless of device or network.

The borkage comes just months after the DVSA began recruiting a chief digital and information officer to help wrestle its booking system into something more modern and less gameable. Right now, it looks like the system is still capable of locking out humans while letting workarounds slip through.

This came after the National Audit Office in December criticized the DVSA over long waits for practical tests, largely driven by a shortage of examiners but compounded by an 18-year-old booking platform that has proven easy prey for bots, cancellation checkers, and resellers. 

In that context, a booking system that only behaves on one browser feels less like a blip and more like business as usual. ®