Dorchester driving test centre
South West, England · Peverell Avenue West, Poundbury, Dorset · DT1 3SU
Dorchester at a glance
- Pass rate
- 69%
- April 2025 to March 2026
- Average wait
- 6.4 weeks
- June 2026
- Tests a year
- 4,353
- April 2025 to March 2026
- Slots still free
- 9.3%
- Of the 24-week booking window
How Dorchester compares
Dorchester passes 69% of car tests, which is 18.9 points above the 50.1% national average. The typical wait between booking and testing is 6.4 weeks, 5.7 weeks shorter than the national average of 12.1 weeks. It conducted 4,353 car tests in April 2025 to March 2026. In the most recent month DVSA has published, March 2026, the rate was 72.5% — a single month, so expect it to bounce around the annual figure.
Trends at Dorchester
Pass rate
Mar 2026: 72.5%
Show these figures as a table
| Month | Pass rate |
|---|---|
| 72.5% | |
| 72.2% | |
| 70.8% | |
| 67.6% | |
| 63.4% | |
| 66.7% | |
| 69.9% | |
| 68.2% | |
| 69.3% | |
| 69.3% | |
| 67.8% | |
| 70.2% |
Waiting time
Jun 2026: 6.4w
Show these figures as a table
| Month | Average wait |
|---|---|
| 6.4 weeks | |
| 5.9 weeks | |
| 9.4 weeks | |
| 10.4 weeks | |
| 10.6 weeks | |
| 13.1 weeks | |
| 11.9 weeks | |
| 7.6 weeks | |
| 14.5 weeks | |
| 17.2 weeks | |
| 19.9 weeks | |
| 17.1 weeks |
Tests conducted each month
Mar 2026: 484
Show these figures as a table
| Month | Tests conducted |
|---|---|
| 484 | |
| 431 | |
| 332 | |
| 284 | |
| 478 | |
| 466 | |
| 376 | |
| 324 | |
| 283 | |
| 231 | |
| 292 | |
| 372 |
Year by year
| Year | Tests | Passes | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 4,353 | 3,002 | 69% |
| 2024-25 | 4,561 | 3,042 | 66.7% |
| 2023-24 | 5,689 | 3,614 | 63.5% |
| 2022-23 | 5,202 | 3,224 | 62% |
| 2021-22 | 5,999 | 3,880 | 64.7% |
| 2020-21 | 1,559 | 1,024 | 65.7% |
| 2019-20 | 4,498 | 2,677 | 59.5% |
| 2018-19 | 4,223 | 2,636 | 62.4% |
| 2017-18 | 4,876 | 3,129 | 64.2% |
| 2016-17 | 5,926 | 3,707 | 62.6% |
Where it is
Nearby test centres
There is no catchment area for the practical test — you can book at any of these instead.
- Yeovil
28 km away
63.4% pass · 10 weeks wait
- Taunton
55 km away
59.5% pass · 12.1 weeks wait
- Salisbury
62 km away
48.5% pass · 3.6 weeks wait
- Trowbridge
70 km away
55.2% pass · 7.7 weeks wait
- Exeter
74 km away
46.8% pass · 6.6 weeks wait
- Southampton (Maybush)
76 km away
50.3% pass · 9.3 weeks wait
Everything on this page describes Dorchester driving test centre. Figures come from the DVSA statistical data sets DRT122A and DRT122F, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Pass rates run to March 2026 and waiting times to June 2026. This page was last updated .
Practice makes perfect
Learn the Dorchester test routes before you go
Driving Test Routes App UK maps the roads examiners actually use, across driving test centres in England, Scotland and Wales — so your practice hours go on the roundabouts and junctions that show up on the day.
- CarPlay
- Speed limit alerts
- Turn-by-turn routes
- Offline maps
