Test centre · Dorchester
Dorchester Driving Test Centre
A test from Dorchester can go out through Poundbury, Charminster, Martinstown and Bradford Peverell, and on the roads between them.
69.0%
Pass rate in 2025-26, 19.0 points above Great Britain (50.0%). Every figure
Dorchester in DVSA's figures
DVSA figures for 2025-26, published 25 June 2026 · waiting time for July 2026, published 9 September 2026
Pass rate · 2025-26 · 69.0%
19.0 points above the Great Britain figure of 50.0% (the marker on the bar).
3rd highest of the 259 centres with 1,000 or more tests.
- Tests taken
- 4,353
- 3,002 passed
- First attempts
- 71.8%
- 1,735 of 2,415
- Median wait
- 10.9 weeks
- tests taken in July 2026
- Automatic
- 59.3%
- 1,355 tests
- Manual
- 73.3%
- 2,998 tests
- Women · men
- 69.6% · 68.4%
- Aged 17
- 82.5%
- Aged 17 to 25
- 78.5%
- Car tests start from
- 66 Peverell Avenue West, Poundbury, Dorchester, DT1 3SU
- 50.71317, -2.47128
Source: DVSA tables DRT122A, DRT122C, DRT122D, DRT122E, DRT122F, DRT121G. Manual is our arithmetic: all tests minus automatic. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Sources and notes
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Pass rate by year
| Year | Pass rate | Tests | Passes | Against Great Britain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 69.0% | 4,353 | 3,002 | 19.0 points above (50.0%) |
| 2024-25 | 66.7% | 4,561 | 3,042 | 18.0 points above (48.7%) |
| 2023-24 | 63.5% | 5,689 | 3,614 | 15.6 points above (47.9%) |
| 2022-23 | 62.0% | 5,202 | 3,224 | 13.6 points above (48.4%) |
| 2021-22 | 64.7% | 5,999 | 3,880 | 15.8 points above (48.9%) |
| 2020-21 | 65.7% | 1,559 | 1,024 | 15.9 points above (49.8%) |
| 2019-20 | 59.5% | 4,498 | 2,677 | 13.6 points above (45.9%) |
| 2018-19 | 62.4% | 4,223 | 2,636 | – |
| 2017-18 | 64.2% | 4,876 | 3,129 | – |
| 2016-17 | 62.6% | 5,926 | 3,707 | – |
| 2015-16 | 63.0% | 5,326 | 3,356 | – |
| 2014-15 | 60.8% | 4,722 | 2,869 | – |
| 2013-14 | 62.7% | 4,666 | 2,927 | – |
| 2012-13 | 62.8% | 4,829 | 3,032 | – |
| 2011-12 | 60.8% | 5,452 | 3,315 | – |
DVSA table DRT122A, each financial year it publishes for this centre. Great Britain from DRT121G, which starts in January 2019, so a dash marks a year with no whole-year Great Britain figure to compare.
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Dorchester beside Great Britain and nearby centres
| Centre | Pass rate | First attempts | Tests | Median wait | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dorchester | 69.0% | 71.8% | 4,353 | 10.9 wks | – |
| Great Britain | 50.0% | – | 1,998,621 | 11.1 wks | – |
| Yeovil | 63.4% | 64.1% | 7,493 | 16.3 wks | 28.9 km |
| Poole | 53.4% | 53.0% | 10,375 | 7.1 wks | 35.0 km |
| Taunton | 59.5% | 59.2% | 8,259 | 11.9 wks | 55.2 km |
| Salisbury | 48.5% | 48.3% | 6,630 | 5.3 wks | 62.4 km |
| Trowbridge | 55.2% | 56.4% | 3,074 | 8.9 wks | 69.4 km |
Pass rates and tests for 2025-26; waits for tests taken in July 2026. A dash means DVSA publishes no figure we hold. Distances are straight lines between centres, and only centres with a page here are listed (find them from all test centres), so a centre we have not mapped yet may be nearer. You can book at any centre, but since 9 June 2026 a booked test can only be moved to one of the 3 centres nearest it, or back to the one you first booked (GOV.UK).
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Waiting times and booking
For tests taken at Dorchester in July 2026, the median wait between booking and the test was 10.9 weeks, against 11.1 weeks across Great Britain. DVSA estimated 23.0 weeks until at least one in ten appointments a week was free. These are a past month's figures; the dates you can book today are on GOV.UK.
DVSA cancelled 119 tests here in 2025-26, 2.7 for every 100 it conducted, most often for examiner leave. These are DVSA's own cancellations; we have found no published figures for tests cancelled by candidates.
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Questions about Dorchester test centre
What is the pass rate at Dorchester driving test centre?
69.0% of driving tests at Dorchester were passes in 2025-26: 3,002 of 4,353, according to DVSA. That is 19.0 points above the Great Britain figure of 50.0%.
How many driving tests were taken at Dorchester in the latest year?
DVSA records 4,353 car driving tests at Dorchester in 2025-26, of which 3,002 were passed.
Is the first-time pass rate at Dorchester different?
For first attempts the pass rate was 71.8% (1,735 of 2,415) in 2025-26, against 69.0% for all attempts.
What is the waiting time for a driving test at Dorchester?
DVSA's median wait between booking and taking a test at Dorchester was 10.9 weeks for tests taken in July 2026. It is a month's figure, not today's: GOV.UK shows the dates you can book now.
Where exactly is Dorchester driving test centre?
Car tests start from 66 Peverell Avenue West, Poundbury, Dorchester, DT1 3SU. On a map it is at 50.71317, -2.47128.
Is there an official list of routes for Dorchester driving test centre?
No. DVSA stopped publishing test routes in October 2010, and they are still not published, so you cannot check them before your test. The drives on this page are for visualisation and practice only: they show the kind of roads a test from here can use.
How does Dorchester compare with nearby test centres?
In 2025-26 the pass rate at Dorchester was 69.0%. The nearest centres with a page here: Yeovil 63.4% (28.9 km away); Poole 53.4% (35.0 km away); Taunton 59.5% (55.2 km away).
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Sources and notes
- DRT122A: Car driving test pass rates by gender and month: test centres. Data to March 2026, published by DVSA 25 June 2026.
- DRT122C: Car driving test pass rates by first driving attempt and gender, including zero faults: test centres. Data to March 2026, published by DVSA 25 June 2026.
- DRT122D: Car driving test pass rates by age (17 to 25 year olds) and year: test centres. Data to March 2026, published by DVSA 25 June 2026.
- DRT122E: Automatic car driving test pass rates by gender: test centres. Data to March 2026, published by DVSA 25 June 2026.
- DRT122F: Car driving test waiting times and availability by driving test centre, January 2019 to date: Great Britain. Data to August 2026, published by DVSA 9 September 2026.
- DRT121G: Car driving test waiting times and availability by country and region, January 2019 to date: Great Britain. Data to August 2026, published by DVSA 9 September 2026.
All from DVSA's driving test statistics, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Analysis by Driving Mastery; DVSA does not endorse it. A pass rate is not a measure of how hard a test centre is. It reflects who books there and how prepared they are, the mix of automatic and manual tests, and local road conditions, as well as anything about the centre itself. Manual figures are all tests minus automatic tests, which is our arithmetic rather than a DVSA figure. Waiting times are a median over the tests taken that month, not a quoted booking lead time.
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