Chippenham Driving Test Centre
The Chippenham driving test centre is located in Chippenham, England. Below are the official pass-rate statistics, multi-year trend, demographic breakdown, and how this centre compares against the UK average and its neighbours, all drawn from the DVSA quarterly statistical release.
Pass vs fail at a glance
52.9K passed, 54.6K failed, 107.4K total
How Chippenham compares
Chippenham sits close to the UK average pass rate.
Where Chippenham ranks among 323 centres
Pass-rate trend by year
Most common faults at this centre
The fault categories most frequently recorded against learners on test. Knowing them lets you target practice on the things examiners are most likely to penalise.
- 1Junctions - observation10
- 2Mirrors - change direction9
- 3Move off - safely8
- 4Junctions - turning right7
- 5Response to signs - traffic lights6
Per-centre fault breakdowns are derived from the DVSA national fault distribution applied to centre-level test outcomes.
Pass rate by demographic
Estimated wait time and demand
Wait times at Chippenham have remained broadly stable through recent reporting periods. Booking is achievable but not immediate: learners booking at Chippenham typically wait around 16 weeks from booking to test day.
Wait time is estimated from regional demand patterns reported in the National Audit Office investigation into car driving test waiting times (Dec 2024) and the DVSA Despatch blog updates, combined with this centre's test volume. Real availability fluctuates with examiner staffing and cancellations, always check the official DVSA booking service for live slots.
Centre details
Address
Accessibility & facilities
Parking, toilets, and disabled-access details vary by centre. Check the official DVSA find a driving test centre tool, or call DVSA Customer Services on 0300 200 1122.
About this test centre
Chippenham is the DVSA car test centre in Chippenham, Wiltshire. Examiners use a small set of fixed routes built around the roads immediately surrounding the centre. Volume is not the issue at Chippenham. 107.4K tests sit on the record across 2017-18-2024-25, so the trend line below reflects real movement, not sample noise.
Rank: #161 of 323. Pass rate: 50.6%. UK average: 48.7%. That's a upper half centre by the DVSA's own published figures. 3.7K first-attempt tests, 48.9% pass rate, against a UK average of 49%. Chippenham doesn't favour or punish first-timers relative to the national pattern.
All figures shown are aggregated from the DVSA quarterly statistical release covering the most recent reporting periods available. Pass-rate calculations exclude tests cancelled by the candidate or examiner. Sample sizes and methodology are described in the source attribution at the foot of this page.
What learners should know about Chippenham
- Centre difficulty is roughly average at Chippenham. The same fault categories that fail candidates nationally (junctions, mirrors, observation) are what fail candidates here, in similar proportions.
- Chippenham is a high-volume centre. Booking pressure is real, check the DVSA cancellation feed daily for earlier slots rather than relying on the headline available date.
- Practising the test routes is the single thing that most reliably moves a candidate's pass odds. Most ADI instructors in Chippenham will have a working knowledge of which routes Chippenham uses.
- Don't pay third-party sites for booking access at Chippenham. Use gov.uk/book-driving-test directly; cancellations show up on the same booking flow.
Other test centres nearby
On the day at Chippenham
Aim to be at Chippenham ten minutes early. Because parking and waiting facilities are not the same at every DVSA centre, check the approach on the DVSA centre finder before the day. Demand is high and the modelled wait is close to 16 weeks, so an early booking and a cancellation alert are both worth setting up. The examiner needs to see your provisional photocard licence to begin, and the car you bring must be roadworthy, fitted with L plates and a working interior mirror. If Trowbridge is fully booked, Chippenham is the next closest centre, roughly 11 miles away.
Plan for a drive of roughly 40 minutes, identical in structure to every other DVSA centre. First comes the 20-metre eyesight check and a pair of vehicle-safety questions, one show-me, one tell-me, then the examiner joins you for the road section. About 20 minutes is independent driving by sat nav or by following signs to a named target, you tackle one of four set manoeuvres, and around a third of candidates get an emergency stop. The drive works through whatever mix of urban and outlying roads sits within about a twenty-minute radius, and at a centre this busy that usually means heavier traffic to read. Across recent DVSA marking, the fault logged most often at this centre is junctions - observation, worth drilling on the local routes before your date.
There is no wait for the verdict, the examiner delivers it at the centre. They go over each fault recorded, hand you the DL25 feedback form, and on a pass retain your provisional licence so the full version arrives by post. To pass you need no more than 15 driving faults and not a single serious or dangerous one; 50.6% of candidates at Chippenham currently clear that.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pass rate at Chippenham?
Is Chippenham an easy or hard test centre?
How does Chippenham compare to the UK average?
How many tests are taken at Chippenham each year?
Which driving test centres are near Chippenham?
When is the best time to book a test at Chippenham?
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Data: DVSA quarterly statistical release, released under the Open Government Licence v3.0. PassRates.uk aggregates DVSA centre-level totals across reporting periods.
Edited by Vikas. DVSA data period: 2024-25.