Peterborough driving test centre
Second Drove, Fengate, Peterborough, PE1 5XA
Drive the 5 routes around Peterborough before test day →
Key facts
- Peterborough's pass rate was 52.8% in 2025/26 from 10,551 tests, 2.8 points above the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 8 of 24 centres in East of England (East of England average 51.4%), one of the higher pass rates in the region.
- The rate has been stable since 2021/22, moving between 47.2% (2023/24) and 52.8% (2025/26).
- Male candidates passed at 54.5% and female candidates at 50.8%, a gap of 3.7 points.
- On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 17 weeks since booking (longer than the national median of 11.9 weeks); the first week with 10% or more of slots still free was 24 weeks ahead.
- A year earlier (August 2025) the median wait was 14.3 weeks, so waits have grown by about 2.7 weeks.
Peterborough tests are decided on the parkways. The centre sits on Second Drove in Fengate, an industrial area east of the city, and the Frank Perkins Parkway runs alongside it as a grade-separated dual carriageway with a national speed limit. Three of the five practice loops on this page use it, and the roundabouts that feed it are large, multi-lane and taken at speed. The city was built out as a new town, which is why there are so many of them: across the loops there are more than thirty. Candidates come from Peterborough itself, Stanground, Whittlesey, Eye and the villages beyond. If you have never held seventy miles an hour with lorries alongside you, this is the test that will ask.
Drive the Peterborough test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 53 km in all, with 35 roundabouts and 107 marked turns. Generated from the road network within 2.5 km of Peterborough; not DVSA’s own routes, but the same roads.
Drive it before test day
Drive all 5 loops around Peterborough from your phone before you ever sit in the car: every roundabout, every junction, in the order you will meet them.
- 5 routes · 53 km · 107 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 Turnstone Way11.8 km loop with 7 roundabouts, 8 right turns, 6 left turns and a stretch of Fengate.11.8 km · 21 turns · 7 roundabouts
- Route 2 · via Newark Road10.5 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 6 right turns, 5 left turns and a stretch of Bishop's Road.10.5 km · 19 turns · 8 roundabouts
- Route 3 · via Frank Perkins Parkway13.0 km loop with 9 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 6 left turns and a stretch of Boongate.13.0 km · 22 turns · 9 roundabouts
- Route 4 · via Frank Perkins Parkway12.5 km loop with 9 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 6 left turns and a stretch of Fengate.12.5 km · 22 turns · 9 roundabouts
- Route 5 · via Fengate5.4 km loop with 2 roundabouts, 11 right turns, 10 left turns and a stretch of Miller Way.5.4 km · 23 turns · 2 roundabouts
The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.
The roundabouts are relentless. They fall thickest on Boongate, Whittlesey Road, Fengate and South Street, and the Boongate roundabout is the one to know, because it is where routes turn onto the parkway. Some are ordinary junctions in an industrial estate. Others are the parkway interchanges, where three or four lanes approach at speed and the lane you need is decided by an overhead sign several hundred metres back. Reading the sign, not the markings under the bonnet, is the single most useful habit for this test.
The Frank Perkins Parkway is the fast part. Joining from a slip road means matching traffic already doing seventy, and lorries use this road heavily because of the industrial estates it serves. Leaving means moving left in good time and losing the speed on the slip road rather than on the roundabout at the end of it. Examiners mark hesitation at the merge as readily as they mark a late lane change.
The loops then drop into ordinary city driving. Bishop's Road and Rivergate bring you towards the river and the city centre, where the bridge approach is narrower and the traffic slower. South Street and Whittlesey Road cover Stanground, and Newark Road and Coneygree Road cover the residential streets east of the centre. These are where manoeuvres are usually asked for, on roads with parked cars rather than in the open estate.
One loop is much shorter than the rest, barely five kilometres, and stays close to Fengate. The other four are between ten and thirteen. Practise the parkway sequence in particular: slip road on, hold the lane, slip road off, straight onto a multi-lane roundabout with the speed still high.
Waiting time for a test at Peterborough
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 | 17 | 24 | 46 | 37.1% |
| Jul 2026 | 17 | 24 | 38 | 44.1% |
| Jun 2026 | 11.7 | 24 | 43 | 35.6% |
| May 2026 | 7.4 | 24 | 50 | 31.4% |
| Apr 2026 | 5.4 | 24 | 53 | 26.5% |
| Mar 2026 | 3.1 | 24 | 61 | 21.6% |
Pass rate at Peterborough, 2008/09 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 | 10,551 | 52.8% | 54.5% | 50.8% |
| 2024/25 | 11,021 | 50.2% | 52.2% | 47.7% |
| 2023/24 | 10,467 | 47.2% | 48.6% | 45.6% |
| 2022/23 | 8,874 | 49.4% | 52.5% | 46.0% |
| 2021/22 | 9,089 | 51.6% | 53.7% | 49.4% |
| 2020/21 | 2,873 | 49.6% | 51.7% | 47.5% |
| 2019/20 | 10,374 | 45.7% | 49.3% | 42.2% |
| 2018/19 | 9,639 | 45.1% | 49.9% | 41.0% |
East of England average 51.4% · GB 50%
Tell me when the wait at Peterborough drops
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Test day at Peterborough
Second Drove is off Fengate, and Fengate is reached from the city on Bishop's Road or from the Frank Perkins Parkway. The names in this part of Peterborough are droves and dykes rather than streets, so check the sat nav has taken you to the right one. There are marked candidate bays outside the DVSA block and toilets inside, and a small ramp leads to a double-door entrance that takes a wheelchair.
Peterborough station is a little over two kilometres west, which is walkable at a push but more often done by bus from the city centre.
The centre runs car tests, motorcycle module 1 and module 2, and ADI part 2 and part 3, so expect to share the site with riders. Booking, moving and cancelling all go through GOV.UK.
Arrive with ten minutes in hand to park and settle. The examiner checks the licence, takes the insurance declaration and does the eyesight check outside. The drive starts on the estate roads of Fengate, which are wide and lorry-heavy, and the first roundabout usually comes before you have properly settled.
What DVSA publishes about Peterborough
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 2ADI part 3
- Wheelchair access
- Not published. Ring DVSA before the day rather than assuming.
Other tests at Peterborough
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 Peterborough
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 Peterborough.
- 1Junctions - observation
- 2Mirrors - change direction
- 3Junctions - turning right
- 4Response to signs - traffic lights
- 5Control - steering
- 6Move off - safely
Getting there
Second Drove, FengatePeterborough PE1 5XA
Questions learners ask about Peterborough
- Is Peterborough an easy test centre?
- By the numbers, yes: 52.8% 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 Peterborough?
- In August 2026 the median gap between booking and sitting a test at Peterborough was 17 weeks, and you had to look about 24 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 Peterborough driving test centre?
- Peterborough test centre is at Second Drove, Fengate, Peterborough, PE1 5XA. 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 Peterborough do a year?
- 10,551 car tests were conducted at Peterborough in 2025/26, of which 5,569 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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