Failed practical test. Retest cost advice

Hi,

unfortunately I failed my practical class C test this week. 40 minutes into the test, and during a stop and pull out exercise, a speeding car appeared from nowhere, overtook me as i was pulling out and the examiner had to stop me. I accept my fault as I didn’t check enough to see the car.

When I got home, I phoned my driving school to find out if a retest was available, but I was told that the cost was £400. I was a little surprised since I paid £1,800 for the full package, from medical and all modules, 16 hours practice in the west yorshire area, but retest is not included. Are these normal prices ? I asked for an itemised bill, but I haven’t got a reply yet.

When I go to driving schools web sites, they don’t usually display prices, they want you to call them, which seems a little odd.

I want to get my license, but I’m afraid to keep failing and failing at the cost of £400 for each time. Is it possible to get some fail insurance at this stage ? Are there any cheaper than £400 retest options ?

kazordoon:
Hi,

unfortunately I failed my practical class C test this week. 40 minutes into the test, and during a stop and pull out exercise, a speeding car appeared from nowhere, overtook me as i was pulling out and the examiner had to stop me. I accept my fault as I didn’t check enough to see the car.

When I got home, I phoned my driving school to find out if a retest was available, but I was told that the cost was £400. I was a little surprised since I paid £1,800 for the full package, from medical and all modules, but retest is not included. Are these normal prices ? I asked for an itemised bill, but I haven’t got a reply yet.

When I go to driving schools web sites, they don’t usually display prices, they want you to call them, which seems a little odd.

I want to get my license, but I’m afraid to keep failing and failing at the cost of £400 for each time. Is it possible to get some fail insurance at this stage ? Are there any cheaper than £400 retest options ?

The only school I know of that offers a pass protection is the forum sponsor PSTT and they charge 300 for pass protection which gives you up to 3 retests. They don’t make anything out of the pass protection cost if someone fails the first one let alone up to 3 times.

As for you training provider then it would have possibly been wise to ask if they did a pass protection type scheme.

Unfortunately it is all rather academic now anyway.

I’d suggest you were possibly unlucky on the day, and it does happen like that sometimes. But if trained to a decent standard there is no reason why you shouldn’t pass, but it’s up to you how many times you want to pay to try again. but don’t be too disheartened over it.

It depends on your circumstances really as to how much money you can spend on trying. If by passing you can increase your earnings then it will soon pay for itself even if it cost you another £400 or £800 on top.

People always say the training costs are high for HGV, but there isn’t many jobs where training cost as little as what you have paid to have the potential to earn 28k upwards a year.

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Also £400 for a retest is a reasonable fee, there is the test fee to pay plus the truck for the time required.

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What part of UK are you

What part of UK are you

the west yorshire area

£400 is the higher end of normal. PSTT charge £300 fully inclusive and, as mentioned, offer Pass Protection when booking a full course also for £300. The Pass Protection covers the costs of 3 retests - ie it has a potential value of £900. The main thing it offers, imo, is peace of mind.

Pete S

The actual cost of the Re-Test is £115. Then ontop of this you have to pay for the hire of vehicle to use for your test and instructor’s pay. Usually its between 300 - 350 normally

£400 might be slightly on the high side, but not by too much. If you were to go elsewhere they would probably want you to have some lesson time as well so they could see the standard of your driving, as well as getting some more money for themselves.
Either way, you only failed because of one small thing, more due to luck than any error on your part.
Book the retest and keep fingers crossed for better luck next time.

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simcor:
The only school I know of that offers a pass protection is the forum sponsor .

People always say the training costs are high for HGV, but there isn’t many jobs where training cost as little as what you have paid to have the potential to earn 28k upwards a year.

Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk

Pass protection seems quite common in the schools I looked at. E.g. one was offering pass protection of 2 retests with tuition for £400, but a £200 refund for 1st time pass!

They were talking about butchers on Question Time. Salaries of £15 ph but 2 years of training! Sounds like HGV is easy to get into.

kazordoon:
Hi,

unfortunately I failed my practical class C test this week. 40 minutes into the test, and during a stop and pull out exercise, a speeding car appeared from nowhere, overtook me as i was pulling out and the examiner had to stop me. I accept my fault as I didn’t check enough to see the car.

When I got home, I phoned my driving school to find out if a retest was available, but I was told that the cost was £400. I was a little surprised since I paid £1,800 for the full package, from medical and all modules, 16 hours practice in the west yorshire area, but retest is not included. Are these normal prices ? I asked for an itemised bill, but I haven’t got a reply yet.

When I go to driving schools web sites, they don’t usually display prices, they want you to call them, which seems a little odd.

I want to get my license, but I’m afraid to keep failing and failing at the cost of £400 for each time. Is it possible to get some fail insurance at this stage ? Are there any cheaper than £400 retest options ?

I think you should ask what is involved, it may include lessons/recap and the retest fees etc so if you deduct the test fee of £115 that leaves £285, HGV training is £55 an hour where I am so if you deduct a further say 3 hours for the test get there-test-get back (£165) it leaves £120 unaccounted for so maybe a few hours refresher driving !