Gillingham Driving Test Centre
The Gillingham driving test centre is located in Gillingham, 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
65.7K passed, 62.2K failed, 127.8K total
How Gillingham compares
Gillingham performs notably better than the UK average. This often correlates with rural or suburban routes that have fewer multi-lane roundabouts and complex urban scenarios.
Where Gillingham 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 Gillingham have been gradually shortening as DVSA recovers post-pandemic capacity. Booking is achievable but not immediate: learners booking at Gillingham 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
Source: DVSA find a driving test centre (Open Government Licence v3.0), captured 2026-05-12.
Tests offered at Gillingham
- car
- motorcycle module 1 (off-road)
- motorcycle module 2 (on-road)
- ADI part 3
Accessibility & facilities
Parking and toilet details aren't included in DVSA's published feed. For the current on-site facilities, check the DVSA find a driving test centre tool with postcode ME8 0EZ, or call DVSA Customer Services on 0300 200 1122.
About this test centre
Gillingham sits in Gillingham, Medway. It's a DVSA-run car test centre, and the routes from here work outward into the streets and arterial roads that learners from Gillingham tend to know already. If you're cross-checking this pass rate against other sources, the sample size matters. 127.8K tests over 2017-18-2024-25 is large enough that any rounding you see between sites is just rounding, not disagreement on the underlying data.
57.2% at Gillingham, against a UK car average of 48.7%. That puts the centre 8.5 points clear of the national figure and ranks it #82 of 323 car centres in the DVSA's network. First-attempt pass rate at Gillingham: 57.4%, against 49% nationally. That's a 8.4-point lead. Well-prepared candidates with no prior test attempts pass here at a noticeably higher rate than the UK average.
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 Gillingham
- Don't read a higher pass rate as a softer test. Gillingham's rate reflects route geography more than examiner discretion, DVSA marking is centrally trained. Prepare for the same fault categories you'd prepare for anywhere.
- 57.4% of first-timers pass at Gillingham. If your instructor is signing you off as test-ready, that figure is a fair guide, the centre isn't the variable, your preparation is.
- 127.8K tests through this centre over the published window. At that throughput, competition for short-notice slots is constant, set up a cancellation alert and check often.
- If you can, take at least one lesson with an instructor who specifically works the Gillingham routes. Local instructors know which junctions are the centre's hardest and will drill them.
- The only legitimate booking route is gov.uk. Anything calling itself a "test booking concierge" is reselling the same slots at a markup, the slots aren't theirs to control.
Other test centres nearby
On the day at Gillingham
Turn up at Gillingham ten minutes before your appointment, and check ahead where you can park, DVSA sites vary on that. You can preview the location on the DVSA centre finder. Demand is high and waits are near 16 weeks, so an early booking plus a cancellation watch is the sensible approach. The examiner will ask to see your provisional photocard licence before anything else, and your car must carry L plates and a working interior mirror.
Expect about 40 minutes once you set off, to the same national DVSA script. It opens with an eyesight check at 20 metres and one show-me plus one tell-me question, after which the examiner rides along for the drive. Around 20 minutes of that is independent driving, guided either by a sat nav the examiner provides or by road signs to a named destination, with one of four set manoeuvres and a one-in-three chance of 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.
Results come immediately on return to the centre. The examiner talks you through any faults marked, prints the DL25 feedback form, and (if you passed) takes your provisional licence so the full one can be issued by post. A pass needs no more than 15 driving faults and zero serious or dangerous faults, the standard 57.2% of candidates at Gillingham meet under current DVSA marking.
Frequently asked questions
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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.