Taunton Driving Test Centre
The Taunton driving test centre is located in Taunton, England (TA1 1JD). 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
45.3K passed, 35.4K failed, 80.7K total
How Taunton compares
Taunton 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 Taunton 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 Taunton have remained broadly stable through recent reporting periods. Booking is achievable but not immediate: learners booking at Taunton typically wait around 15 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 Taunton
- car
- motorcycle module 1 (off-road)
- motorcycle module 2 (on-road)
- ADI part 2
- 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 TA2 8RX, or call DVSA Customer Services on 0300 200 1122.
About this test centre
Where do you actually take your car test if you book Taunton? You start in Taunton, Somerset (TA1 1JD), and the examiner takes you through whatever mix of urban and outlying roads sits within a roughly twenty-minute drive of the centre. Volume is not the issue at Taunton. 80.7K tests sit on the record across 2017-18-2024-25, so the trend line below reflects real movement, not sample noise.
How does Taunton compare nationally? 56.3% pass rate, #94 of 323 car centres in the DVSA network, 7.6 points clear of the UK average of 48.7%. The upper half of the country, in other words. First-attempt pass rate at Taunton: 56.2%, against 49% nationally. That's a 7.2-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 Taunton
- Above-average pass rate at Taunton doesn't mean above-average ease. The fundamentals examiners mark are the same nationally: junctions, mirrors, observation, signal timing. A 65%+ pass rate means more candidates clear those, not that the bar is lower.
- First-time pass rate of 56.2% at Taunton is on the forgiving side. A well-prepared first booking has a reasonable shot; don't over-correct by booking a "practice" test you don't actually need.
- Taunton 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 Taunton will have a working knowledge of which routes Taunton uses.
- Book through the official DVSA service (gov.uk/book-driving-test). Third-party "fast-track" sites charge a premium for the same booking; the DVSA's own cancellation feed is free.
Other test centres nearby
On the day at Taunton
Aim to be at Taunton ten minutes early. Because parking and waiting facilities are not the same at every DVSA centre, check the approach on the DVSA centre finder (postcode TA1 1JD) before the day. Demand is high and the modelled wait is close to 15 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.
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.
The result is given immediately when you get back. Whatever the outcome, the examiner reads through the marked faults and prints your DL25 feedback form; pass and they take the provisional licence to trigger your full one by post. The threshold is the national one, 15 driving faults at most and zero serious or dangerous, which 56.3% of Taunton's candidates reach right now.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pass rate at Taunton?
Is Taunton an easy or hard test centre?
How does Taunton compare to the UK average?
How many tests are taken at Taunton each year?
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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.