UK driving test types and pass rates

The Car (Category B) test is by far the largest, with most UK centres offering it. It is the licence most people mean when they talk about passing their driving test, and it covers cars and small vans up to 3,500kg. The motorcycle test is split into two parts: Module 1 is an off-road manoeuvring test conducted at a Multi-Purpose Test Centre (MPTC), where you ride a set course of slalom, controlled stop and an emergency stop through a speed gate; Module 2 is a road ride of around 40 minutes with an examiner following on a separate machine. HGV and LGV tests cover Categories C, C+E and similar lorry classifications, and are run from specialist centres rather than the local test centre most car candidates use.

Pass rates differ between these categories for reasons that have little to do with how hard any single test is. A car test happens in live traffic, on routes that change with every booking, so the result depends partly on the roads, the weather and the junctions you happen to draw on the day. Motorcycle Module 1 is graded on a fixed, marked-out course away from traffic, so the conditions are far more consistent and a well-drilled rider can prepare for exactly what they will face. Lorry tests draw a smaller, more vocationally trained group of candidates, many of whom are funded and assessed through employer or training schemes. When you compare a headline figure from one category against another, you are really comparing different formats and different groups of people, not a single measure of difficulty.

That is why a category figure is best read as orientation rather than a forecast for any individual. Across cars, the average tracks close to the UK figure of 48.7%, but the spread between the strongest and weakest centres within a single category is wide, and a quiet rural centre can sit well above a busy city one offering the very same test. Each category page on this site lists every centre that runs that test, ranked by its current pass rate, alongside the volume of tests behind each number so you can tell a stable, well-evidenced figure from a small sample that could move on a handful of results.

Across all categories the directory covers 654 centres with full DVSA data on file. Use the cards above to open a category, then browse by city to find the centres near you and see how each one compares.