Internet bots are being used to scrape the Road Safety Authority (RSA) website in an attempt to ‘game’ the system and secure driving test cancellation slots to sell to people waiting months to sit tests.
People are turning to third-party apps that use bots due to severe delays in securing a test. The average waiting time jumped in the past three weeks from 24.1 weeks to 26.9 with 81,000 drivers now waiting for a test.
The biggest increase of six weeks to 26 weeks was at a Carlow test centre, while centres in Castlebar, Thurles, Tullamore, Athlone and Newcastle West all increased by four weeks. The longest waiting time, in Tallaght, dropped from 42 to 41 weeks.
It follows concerns that legislation to address “no show” candidates who fail to turn up for their appointments, with 145 tests a week being lost, could be delayed.
Applicants can repeatedly renew their learner permits without restriction once they provide proof that they have applied for their test and the Department of Transport confirmed there is “no timeline” for the introduction of legislation to combat this.
The 81,000 applicants currently waiting for a test date and time include drivers who applied almost a year ago. They are advised to monitor the RSA website for test times including cancellations, offered up to five days before a test.
But the bots, automated software programmes, can search for and access test slots in milliseconds, exploiting the system and leaving those who have applied in the normal way at a disadvantage and waiting even longer.
Eduardo Hernández Alcalá, who applied for his test in Dún Laoghaire in June 2024, said mobile applications run for profit by private individuals or companies are offering to secure cancellation test appointments for €100 or more.
Mr Hernández Alcalá, who works in IT, said the bots “constantly and automatically scrape the RSA website for cancellations, effectively booking slots and selling appointments to those willing to pay”.
“I was originally going to be sent an invitation to book a test in around October of last year and now the latest is the beginning of June this year,” he said.
“Based on the current timelines, it is likely that by the time I can sit my test I will have waited over a whole year, far beyond the promised 10-week target.
“If you’re a human you don’t stand a chance against a bot which can do it in milliseconds. That’s why people like me who follow the rules suffer.”
He said the use of bots “severely exacerbates the backlog and seriously undermines fairness and trust in the testing system. They leave ordinary applicants who follow the official guidelines at a considerable disadvantage.”
The RSA has said it is aware of “third-party applications purporting to offer driving test candidates cancelled appointments” but has warned against using them.
Under the process applicants give their login details and this allows the bots access to the system to find cancellation slots. “The RSA advises against this practice as such sites or parties may not be secure,” a spokesperson said.
“The RSA ICT department is working closely with our partners to ensure that such sites or third parties are restricted in their ability to operate, with a view to limiting their ability to access the booking portal.”
Last year there were 88,300 cancellations by applicants while the RSA cancelled 14,700 appointments “mainly due to adverse weather or tester illness”.
Susan Gray of road safety campaign group Parc said those cancellations are separate from the 15,103 candidates who failed to show for tests, “clogging up the system” with 145 tests lost every week and driver testers left “twiddling their thumbs”.
The department said it was working on legislation to restrict eligibility to third or fourth permits before learners have to do a test. “However, it is not possible to give a timeline for implementation at this point, as the legislation must be in place.”
Ms Gray quoted correspondence in February last year from then minister of State Jack Chambers, who confirmed that the new learner permit regime “does not require primary legislation to address”.
She said the RSA’s 2021-2030 road safety strategy also confirms this, which means the Minister can introduce a “statutory instrument, or regulation” and “not have to go through five stages in the Dáil and Seanad which will take two years”.
The newly appointed chairman of the Oireachtas transport committee, Michael Murphy, is seeking an early meeting with the RSA “to allow them to outline what they are doing to tackle growing waiting lists for driving tests”.
Minister of State for transport Seán Canney has instructed the RSA to review its plan to get test times down to 10 weeks and “identify further measures that will bring forward the date for achieving the target”.
