Gillingham driving test centre
Unit 1, Astra Park, Courteney Road, Gillingham, ME8 0EZ
Drive the 5 routes around Gillingham before test day →
Key facts
- Gillingham's pass rate was 56.4% in 2025/26 from 14,886 tests, 6.4 points above the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 9 of 30 centres in South East (South East average 52.9%), one of the higher pass rates in the region, 3.5 points above it.
- Since 2021/22 the pass rate has fallen by 2.4 points, from 58.8% to 56.4%.
- On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 9.9 weeks since booking (shorter than the national median of 11.9 weeks); the first week with 10% or more of slots still free was 23.8 weeks ahead.
- A year earlier (August 2025) the median wait was 15.3 weeks, so waits have shortened by about 5.4 weeks.
- 40.8% of the standard slots in the booking window were still unbooked in August 2026, which usually means a cancellation or new date is realistic here.
Gillingham's test centre is a unit on Astra Park, a small business estate off Courteney Road on the Rainham side of town. Four hundred metres away sits the Medway centre where lorry and bus tests are conducted, so heavy vehicles are part of the everyday scenery around here.
The pass rate is comfortably above the national average and ninth of thirty in the South East, though it has slipped slightly over the past four years rather than climbed. What marks the area out is range. Few centres in the region put this much variety of road into one drive: quiet 20 mph streets, a great many ordinary 30s, a solid block of 40s, and the A278 dual carriageway running south to the M2.
Drive the Gillingham test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 57 km in all, with 32 roundabouts and 123 marked turns. Generated from the road network within 2.5 km of Gillingham; not DVSA’s own routes, but the same roads.
Drive it before test day
Drive all 5 loops around Gillingham from your phone before you ever sit in the car: every roundabout, every junction, in the order you will meet them.
- 5 routes · 57 km · 123 marked turns
- Examiner-style marking on signalling and observation
- Street View tour of each route
- Every roundabout and junction, in the order you'll meet them
- The four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios, included
One payment, no renewal. Or £9.99 a month with a 3-day free trial. Cancel any time.
Everything else on PassRank, every centre, its pass rate, its waiting time and the forum, is free and needs no account.
- Route 1 · via London Road11.4 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 10 right turns, 8 left turns and a stretch of Star Lane.11.4 km · 26 turns · 8 roundabouts
- Route 2 · via Pear Tree Lane12.5 km loop with 7 roundabouts, 8 right turns, 8 left turns and a stretch of Beechings Way.12.5 km · 23 turns · 7 roundabouts
- Route 3 · via London Road8.9 km loop with 4 roundabouts, 9 right turns, 9 left turns and a stretch of Featherby Road.8.9 km · 22 turns · 4 roundabouts
- Route 4 · via London Road12.0 km loop with 6 roundabouts, 10 right turns, 8 left turns and a stretch of Sovereign Boulevard.12.0 km · 24 turns · 6 roundabouts
- Route 5 · via Sovereign Boulevard11.7 km loop with 7 roundabouts, 12 right turns, 9 left turns and a stretch of Pump Lane.11.7 km · 28 turns · 7 roundabouts
The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.
The spread of speed limits is the thing to prepare for. Of the roads within a couple of miles of the centre:
- a little over half are 30 mph
- around a fifth are 40
- roughly one in eleven is 50, with a small tail at national speed limit
- only about one in twelve is a 20 zone
Very few centres ask you to change limit that often. The A278, Hoath Way, is dual carriageway along its whole length and runs south to junction four of the M2, so merging, slip roads and lane choice at speed are part of the picture rather than an optional extra. At its northern end it meets the A2 at Bowaters Roundabout.
The larger roundabouts go by local names that get used without explanation: Will Adams, Cornwallis, Grange, North Dane Way. On top of those there are about twenty-five mini-roundabouts scattered through the residential streets, and just over fifty sets of traffic lights across the area. The rhythm of a Gillingham drive follows from that. You get long stretches at speed, then a dense run of decisions in quick succession.
The slower work happens on roads like Pump Lane, Hempstead Road, Capstone Road, Darland Avenue and Salisbury Avenue, while Beechings Way and London Road carry the through traffic. There is a level crossing in the area as well. The practice loops on this page run nine to twelve and a half kilometres with four to eight roundabouts each, which is a fair sample of the real thing.
Pass rate at Gillingham, 2010/11 to 2025/26
Share of car tests passed each April-to-March year. Dashed line: Great Britain average for 2025/26.
Month by month, 2025/26
By year and gender
| Year | Tests | Pass rate | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 14,886 | 56.4% | 57.1% | 55.4% |
| 2024/25 | 14,761 | 57.2% | 57.0% | 57.3% |
| 2023/24 | 13,091 | 56.2% | 56.9% | 55.4% |
| 2022/23 | 12,023 | 57.3% | 58.1% | 56.4% |
| 2021/22 | 7,782 | 58.8% | 60.7% | 57.0% |
| 2020/21 | 2,183 | 54.0% | 56.2% | 51.8% |
| 2019/20 | 9,061 | 48.7% | 52.2% | 45.5% |
| 2018/19 | 10,736 | 47.3% | 50.8% | 44.2% |
South East average 52.9% · GB 50%
Waiting time for a test at Gillingham
Median weeks between booking and taking the test, for tests taken each month. Dashed line: GB median for August 2026.
| Month | Median wait | Weeks to free slots | Slots offered | Still free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2026 | 9.9 | 23.8 | 32 | 40.8% |
| Jul 2026 | 9.9 | 24 | 43 | 29.1% |
| Jun 2026 | 9.3 | 24 | 44 | 26.9% |
| May 2026 | 9.7 | 24 | 44 | 26.9% |
| Apr 2026 | 11.1 | 24 | 41 | 27.7% |
| Mar 2026 | 8.5 | 24 | 47 | 23.9% |
Tell me when the wait at Gillingham drops
One email when DVSA’s monthly figure falls, or goes under the number of weeks you choose. No newsletter.
Test day at Gillingham
Astra Park is a working estate and the centre is one unit on it, so the address finds it more reliably than looking for a sign from the road. Parking is on site but limited, which every listing agrees on. Arriving ten minutes early with a plan beats arriving twenty minutes early and circling.
Toilets are provided, including accessible facilities, and the building is listed as wheelchair accessible. Waiting arrangements are typical of a unit this size, which means a small room and a handful of chairs rather than somewhere to sit out a long delay with a parent.
Rainham station is a little over two kilometres away, about half an hour on foot, and the estate roads at the end of that walk are not built for pedestrians. Almost everyone arrives by car.
There are around thirty-six schools in the surrounding area, so a mid-afternoon appointment will overlap with the school run on exactly the residential roads a test uses. If you get a choice of slot, an earlier one is usually calmer. April and May have historically been the strongest months here, March and November the weakest, though the gap is only a few points.
What DVSA publishes about Gillingham
Taken from the GOV.UK test centre finder, checked 3 September 2026. Where DVSA says nothing, this site says nothing.
- Tests conducted here
- carmotorcycle module 1 (off-road)motorcycle module 2 (on-road)ADI part 3
- Wheelchair access
- Not published. Ring DVSA before the day rather than assuming.
Other tests at Gillingham
This centre is not car only. DVSA publishes results for these categories separately, and they are taken by different candidates on different vehicles, so the rates are not comparable with the car figure above.
Learner reports from Gillingham
No reports yet for this centre. If you tested here, the first one is yours to write.
What examiners mark most often
DVSA does not publish faults by centre, but it does publish them nationally. These collected the most marks across every car test in Great Britain in 2025/26, and they are the same ones you will be marked on at Gillingham.
- 1Junctions - observation
- 2Mirrors - change direction
- 3Junctions - turning right
- 4Response to signs - traffic lights
- 5Control - steering
- 6Move off - safely
Getting there
Unit 1, Astra Park, Courteney RoadGillingham ME8 0EZ
Directions in Google Maps · Check centre notes on GOV.UK
Nearby centres
- MaidstoneME15 6JZ · 12 km60.2%+10.2 vs GB10 wkswait
- TilburyRM18 7AE · 19 km50.4%+0.4 vs GB7.1 wkswait
- Southend-on-SeaSS2 6LL · 22 km47.0%-3.0 vs GB7.5 wkswait
- BasildonSS14 3JS · 26 km49.1%-0.9 vs GB4.8 wkswait
- SevenoaksTN13 1HJ · 29 km59.0%+9.0 vs GB10.4 wkswait
- Ashford (Kent)Ashford · TN23 1HU · 32 km46.2%-3.8 vs GB6.3 wkswait
Questions learners ask about Gillingham
- Is Gillingham an easy test centre?
- By the numbers, yes: 56.4% of car tests were passed there in 2025/26, against 50.0% nationally. Pass rates reflect the local roads and who takes tests there as much as the examiners, so treat it as a guide, not a guarantee.
- How long is the wait for a driving test at Gillingham?
- In August 2026 the median gap between booking and sitting a test at Gillingham was 9.9 weeks, and you had to look about 23.8 weeks ahead to find a week with at least 10% of slots free. DVSA publishes this monthly; the figure above updates when they do.
- Where is Gillingham driving test centre?
- Gillingham test centre is at Unit 1, Astra Park, Courteney Road, Gillingham, ME8 0EZ. Arrive at least 10 minutes early with your provisional licence; parking rules vary by centre, so check the learner reports below.
- How many driving tests does Gillingham do a year?
- 14,886 car tests were conducted at Gillingham in 2025/26, of which 8,389 were passed.
Source: DVSA tables DRT122A (pass rates by centre and month) and DRT122F (waiting times and availability), Open Government Licence v3.0. PassRank adds the comparisons and rankings.
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