Hartlepool driving test centre
Unit 20, Newburn Bridge Industrial Estate, Mainsforth Terrace, Hartlepool, TS25 1TZ
Drive the 5 routes around Hartlepool before test day →
Key facts
- Hartlepool's pass rate was 51% in 2025/26 from 5,847 tests, in line with the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 6 of 11 centres in North East (North East average 48.4%), a mid-table pass rates in the region, 2.6 points above it.
- Since 2021/22 the pass rate has fallen by 6.9 points, from 57.9% to 51%.
- On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 13.4 weeks since booking; the first week with 10% or more of slots still free was 15 weeks ahead.
- A year earlier (August 2025) the median wait was 23 weeks, so waits have shortened by about 9.6 weeks.
Hartlepool is a roundabout test. The busiest of the practice loops on this page takes in ten roundabout entries in 10.8 kilometres and the quietest still has four, with eight mini-roundabouts mapped within 2.5 km of the centre on top of the named ones at Easington Road, Church Street and the Asda roundabout.
Everything else about the centre is middling in a useful way. The pass rate sits at about half, in line with the national average and mid-table for the North East, though it has fallen by nearly seven points since 2021. The wait has moved the other way. It was over twenty-two weeks a year ago and is now around thirteen, and roughly a quarter of the slots in the booking window were still unbooked, which usually means an earlier date is worth watching for.
Drive the Hartlepool test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 52 km in all, with 36 roundabouts and 108 marked turns. Generated from the road network within 2.5 km of Hartlepool; not DVSA’s own routes, but the same roads.
Drive it before test day
Drive all 5 loops around Hartlepool from your phone before you ever sit in the car: every roundabout, every junction, in the order you will meet them.
- 5 routes · 52 km · 108 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
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- Route 1 · via Middleton Road10.8 km loop with 10 roundabouts, 5 right turns, 5 left turns and a stretch of Mainsforth Terrace.10.8 km · 20 turns · 10 roundabouts
- Route 2 · via Belle Vue Way8.2 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 11 right turns, 9 left turns and a stretch of Mainsforth Terrace.8.2 km · 28 turns · 8 roundabouts
- Route 3 · via Stockton Road10.9 km loop with 7 roundabouts, 11 right turns, 9 left turns and a stretch of Mainsforth Terrace.10.9 km · 27 turns · 7 roundabouts
- Route 4 · via Mainsforth Terrace11.4 km loop with 4 roundabouts, 6 right turns, 7 left turns and a stretch of Warrior Drive.11.4 km · 17 turns · 4 roundabouts
- Route 5 · via Marina Way10.5 km loop with 7 roundabouts, 5 right turns, 4 left turns and a stretch of Mainsforth Terrace.10.5 km · 16 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.
Roundabout after roundabout. All five practice loops on this page take in at least four roundabout entries and one takes ten, so the marking concentrates on approach speed, lane choice and observation to the right. Eight mini-roundabouts are mapped within 2.5 km alongside the named ones, and a mini-roundabout punishes the driver who treats an empty one as a give-way and rolls straight through it.
Six level crossings are mapped in the area, a legacy of the lines into the docks. Approach ready to stop, stop behind the line when the lights show, and wait for the barriers to lift fully before moving off. Forty-two signalled junctions sit in the same radius, most of them on Stockton Road, Church Street and around the marina.
Mainsforth Terrace appears on four of the five loops, which makes it the road you are most likely to start and finish on. Marina Way, Marina Gateway, Coronation Drive and Belle Vue Way carry the newer, wider part of the routes, and Oxford Road, Burn Road and the streets around Stranton the older and tighter part. About a third of the roads mapped nearby are 20 and most of the rest are 30, so changes of limit are frequent and the sign is easy to miss on a wide road. Thirty-one schools sit in the area. Manoeuvres are usually set on the residential streets rather than on the industrial estate itself.
Pass rate at Hartlepool, 2007/08 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 | 5,847 | 51.0% | 51.0% | 51.1% |
| 2024/25 | 5,725 | 49.7% | 49.2% | 50.4% |
| 2023/24 | 7,964 | 48.2% | 45.6% | 51.8% |
| 2022/23 | 7,571 | 52.5% | 51.4% | 53.9% |
| 2021/22 | 4,395 | 57.9% | 60.8% | 55.2% |
| 2020/21 | 890 | 57.3% | 58.6% | 56.3% |
| 2019/20 | 5,018 | 54.1% | 58.4% | 50.7% |
| 2018/19 | 4,838 | 54.2% | 59.0% | 50.3% |
North East average 48.4% · GB 50%
Waiting time for a test at Hartlepool
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 | 13.4 | 15 | 19 | 11.7% |
| Jul 2026 | 13.4 | 16.5 | 32 | 14.2% |
| Jun 2026 | 8.1 | 16 | 48 | 7.4% |
| May 2026 | 11 | 16.8 | 37 | 19.1% |
| Apr 2026 | 11.1 | 17 | 40 | 21.7% |
| Mar 2026 | 9.9 | 17 | 44 | 21.5% |
Tell me when the wait at Hartlepool drops
One email when DVSA’s monthly figure falls, or goes under the number of weeks you choose. No newsletter.
Test day at Hartlepool
The centre is Unit 20 on the Newburn Bridge Industrial Estate, off Mainsforth Terrace on the south side of Hartlepool. Industrial units look alike, so find the unit number rather than the building.
GOV.UK confirms that you can access this test centre if you use a wheelchair. It lists car tests only: no motorcycle, lorry, bus or ADI tests are conducted here, which makes it a narrower operation than most centres of its size. Hartlepool station is a little over a kilometre away, so the train is possible, though nearly everyone arrives with an instructor.
Nothing is published about candidate parking or the waiting room. On an industrial estate there is normally room to park, but treat that as typical rather than confirmed. Booking, moving and cancelling go through GOV.UK, and this is a centre where checking for cancellations is worth the effort: about a quarter of the standard slots in the booking window were unbooked in the most recent published month. Arrive around ten minutes early. The examiner checks your licence, takes the signed declaration that the car is insured for the test, and does the eyesight check outside before you get in.
What DVSA publishes about Hartlepool
Taken from the GOV.UK test centre finder, checked 3 September 2026. Where DVSA says nothing, this site says nothing.
- Tests conducted here
- car
- Wheelchair access
- DVSA states you can access this centre in a wheelchair.
Other tests at Hartlepool
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 Hartlepool
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 Hartlepool.
- 1Junctions - observation
- 2Mirrors - change direction
- 3Junctions - turning right
- 4Response to signs - traffic lights
- 5Control - steering
- 6Move off - safely
Getting there
Unit 20, Newburn Bridge Industrial Estate, Mainsforth TerraceHartlepool TS25 1TZ
Directions in Google Maps · Check centre notes on GOV.UK
Nearby centres
- MiddlesbroughTS3 8TE · 12 km47.7%-2.3 vs GB14.3 wkswait
- DarlingtonDL1 4PW · 27 km47.1%-2.9 vs GB8.9 wkswait
- DurhamMeadowfield · DH7 8XL · 27 km53.2%+3.2 vs GB15.7 wkswait
- SunderlandSR5 3JJ · 31 km51.1%+1.1 vs GB8.9 wkswait
Questions learners ask about Hartlepool
- Is Hartlepool an easy test centre?
- It is close to the national average: 51% of tests were passed in 2025/26 against 50.0% across Great Britain.
- How long is the wait for a driving test at Hartlepool?
- In August 2026 the median gap between booking and sitting a test at Hartlepool was 13.4 weeks, and you had to look about 15 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 Hartlepool driving test centre?
- Hartlepool test centre is at Unit 20, Newburn Bridge Industrial Estate, Mainsforth Terrace, Hartlepool, TS25 1TZ. 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 Hartlepool do a year?
- 5,847 car tests were conducted at Hartlepool in 2025/26, of which 2,984 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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