Chippenham Driving Test Centre
Chippenham posts a 50.6% pass rate, with Trowbridge the nearest alternative about 11 miles away. Read on for its full DVSA history, first-time pass rate, waiting time and demographic breakdown.
DVSA data last updated July 2026
Chippenham sits in the top half of car pass rates nationally (Top 50%, rank #161 of 323). The strongest car alternative nearby is Salisbury, about 31.2 miles away.
Pass vs fail at a glance
All-time 52.9K passed, 54.6K failed, 107.4K total
How Chippenham compares
The 1.9-point edge at Chippenham (ranked 161 of 323 in its category) is real but small; local route familiarity moves your odds more than the venue does.
Where Chippenham ranks among 323 centres
Pass-rate trend by year
The direction of travel here is upward: Chippenham has added 5.9 points since 2017-18, from 44.7% to 50.6%, with its strongest year at 50.6% in 2024-25.
Pass rate by demographic
Waiting time at Chippenham
The headline figure for reaching 10% availability is 21.5 weeks, but the typical (median) learner who took their test at Chippenham in May 2026 had waited 5.3 weeks from booking to test day.
Official DVSA data, May 2026. The median is the time between booking and taking the test; for live availability use the DVSA booking service.
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 drive a mix of the roads immediately surrounding the centre; the DVSA does not publish its test routes. 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 booking service daily for earlier slots rather than relying on the headline available date.
- Practising the roads around the centre is the preparation that most reliably pays off. Most ADI instructors in Chippenham will know the road types and junctions learners commonly meet near the centre.
- 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 15 to 19 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 tell-me vehicle-safety question, then the examiner joins you for the road section, with one show-me question while you drive. 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 one in seven 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 DVSA marking nationally, the fault recorded most often on car tests 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 driving tests does Chippenham record?
Which driving test centres are near Chippenham?
When is the best time to book a test at Chippenham?
How do I book a test at Chippenham and what do I need?
How long is the wait for a driving test at Chippenham?
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.