Up, up and away...

... with our money!

The test fee is rising again. Currently, a practical test costs £56.50, but from the 30th of March 2009 the fee rises to £62.00 - an increase of a fraction under 10%!

If you have the cheek to want to take a test on a Saturday, the fee rises from £67.00 to £75.00 - a whopping 11.9% rise.

The theory test (sub contracted to private operators) rises from £30.00 to £31.00 - a mere 3.3% increase.

If you take the most pessimistic view of inflation in the UK, the current rate is around 3%. Some measures come out at 0%. So how do the DSA (Driving Standards Agency) justify these huge increases?

Answer - they don't. Take a look at their own website. It quotes Chief Executive Rosemary Thew:
“We are doing everything we can to ensure that fees remain as low as possible for our customers - particularly during the current economic climate. Despite this, increases are necessary to cover general running costs, development work and increases in inflation."

"The Agency is largely self-funding. We receive only a small amount from general taxation and have to recover most of our costs through test fees."

“We are confident that these increases will enable us to maintain our high standards and provide a first class service to all our customers.”

Hmmmmmm. If I could raise my prices regardless, and my customers could not get my services anywhere else, I think I could be on to a winner.

As Delboy says, "This time next year, Rodney, we could all be millionaires..."