Speke driving test centre
DVSA name: Speke (Liverpool) · Unit 3 Dakota Business Park, Skyhawk Avenue, Speke, Liverpool, L19 2QR
Drive the 5 routes around Speke before test day →
Key facts
- Speke's pass rate was 40.5% in 2025/26 from 8,159 tests, 9.5 points below the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 30 of 31 centres in North West (North West average 49.0%), one of the lower pass rates in the region, 8.5 points below it.
- Since 2021/22 the pass rate has risen by 7.4 points, from 33.1% to 40.5%.
- On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 8.3 weeks since booking (shorter than the national median of 11.9 weeks); the first week with 10% or more of slots still free was 16.6 weeks ahead.
Speke has one of the lowest pass rates in the country, 291st of 302 centres, and it is worth being clear-eyed about that before you book. The number is also moving the right way: it has climbed by more than seven points since 2021, which is a large rise over four years. The reason the test is hard is in the road mix. Around 2.5 km of the Dakota Business Park the mapped roads split three ways, with roughly two fifths at 20, a third at 30 and a quarter at 40. You change speed limit far more often than you would in a town of one texture, and each change is a chance to be a little late.
Drive the Speke test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 51 km in all, with 25 roundabouts and 102 marked turns. Generated from the road network within 2.5 km of Speke; not DVSA’s own routes, but the same roads.
Drive it before test day
Drive all 5 loops around Speke from your phone before you ever sit in the car: every roundabout, every junction, in the order you will meet them.
- 5 routes · 51 km · 102 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 Speke Road10.9 km loop with 7 roundabouts, 10 right turns, 9 left turns and a stretch of Estuary Boulevard.10.9 km · 26 turns · 7 roundabouts
- Route 2 · via Speke Road10.2 km loop with 5 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 5 left turns and a stretch of Speke Boulevard.10.2 km · 17 turns · 5 roundabouts
- Route 3 · via Speke Hall Avenue10.9 km loop with 3 roundabouts, 6 right turns, 4 left turns and a stretch of Speke Road.10.9 km · 13 turns · 3 roundabouts
- Route 4 · via Speke Road8.8 km loop with 4 roundabouts, 13 right turns, 10 left turns and a stretch of Blackburne Street.8.8 km · 27 turns · 4 roundabouts
- Route 5 · via Speke Road10.3 km loop with 6 roundabouts, 8 right turns, 5 left turns and a stretch of Speke Hall Avenue.10.3 km · 19 turns · 6 roundabouts
The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.
The routes start on the business park and get up to speed quickly. Estuary Boulevard, Speke Boulevard and Speke Hall Avenue are wide, fast for a test, and quiet enough that a fault there feels like carelessness rather than pressure. Around a quarter of the roads mapped within 2.5 km are 40 limits, which is a high share for a city centre catchment, and holding an accurate 40 without drifting over it is worth practising on its own.
Speke Road is the busier counterpart. It carries the traffic between the estate, the airport and the river, with side turnings, bus stops and lorries turning across you. Woolton Road and Garston Shore Road add the same kind of driving further out.
Only one conventional roundabout is recorded nearby, at Burman Road, with seven mini-roundabouts alongside it. The loops on this page take in between three and seven roundabout entries each, so they come in clusters rather than steadily, and the mini-roundabouts are the ones that catch people.
The other two fifths of the mapping is 20 mph residential: Blackburne Street, Horrocks Avenue, Alderman Road and the streets around them, with 23 schools inside the same radius. That is where the drop from 40 to 20 happens, and it has to be complete before the sign rather than after it.
Three level crossings are mapped in the area. Manoeuvres are usually set on the quieter estate roads, where the kerbs are straight and the parking is heavy enough on one side to make a pull-up on the right worth doing well.
Pass rate at Speke, 2018/19 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 | 8,159 | 40.5% | 39.7% | 41.7% |
| 2024/25 | 6,986 | 38.6% | 37.6% | 39.8% |
| 2023/24 | 9,213 | 33.1% | 32.7% | 33.6% |
| 2022/23 | 8,382 | 29.0% | 28.9% | 29.0% |
| 2021/22 | 7,898 | 33.1% | 33.5% | 32.8% |
| 2020/21 | 2,403 | 39.8% | 43.4% | 36.3% |
| 2019/20 | 7,445 | 33.8% | 37.7% | 30.2% |
| 2018/19 | 6,763 | 32.5% | 34.8% | 30.1% |
North West average 49% · GB 50%
Waiting time for a test at Speke
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 | 8.3 | 16.6 | 53 | 16.5% |
| Jul 2026 | 8.3 | 20 | 47 | 14.1% |
| Jun 2026 | 10.4 | 21 | 39 | 18.9% |
| May 2026 | 10 | 20.8 | 41 | 18.8% |
| Apr 2026 | 8.7 | 22.8 | 44 | 19.1% |
| Mar 2026 | 7.6 | 22.4 | 48 | 15.5% |
Tell me when the wait at Speke drops
One email when DVSA’s monthly figure falls, or goes under the number of weeks you choose. No newsletter.
Test day at Speke
The centre is Unit 3 on the Dakota Business Park, off Skyhawk Avenue in Speke. The units out there look much alike and the roads are wide and modern, so allow a couple of minutes to find the right one rather than the right street.
GOV.UK publishes that you can access this centre if you use a wheelchair. The tests taken here are car, ADI part 2 and ADI part 3; there are no motorcycle, lorry or bus tests.
Liverpool South Parkway is about a kilometre away, with Merseyrail and Northern services, so arriving by train and walking is possible. Most candidates still come by car with an instructor. Nothing is published about parking or the waiting room, and a business park unit of this kind normally has bays on the estate rather than at the door, which is typical rather than confirmed for this address.
Arrive about ten minutes before your slot. The examiner calls you by name, checks your licence and takes the signed declaration that the car is insured for the test. The eyesight check is done outside on the business park before you get in. Booking, moving and cancelling all go through GOV.UK, and with the wait here under nine weeks a cancellation slot is a realistic thing to watch for.
What DVSA publishes about Speke
Taken from the GOV.UK test centre finder, checked 3 September 2026. Where DVSA says nothing, this site says nothing.
- Tests conducted here
- carADI part 2ADI part 3
- Wheelchair access
- DVSA states you can access this centre in a wheelchair.
Learner reports from Speke
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 Speke.
- 1Junctions - observation
- 2Mirrors - change direction
- 3Junctions - turning right
- 4Response to signs - traffic lights
- 5Control - steering
- 6Move off - safely
Getting there
Unit 3 Dakota Business Park, Skyhawk Avenue, SpekeLiverpool L19 2QR
Directions in Google Maps · Check centre notes on GOV.UK
Nearby centres
- Widnes (Liverpool)Widnes · WA8 8PT · 7.7 km42.7%-7.3 vs GB6.9 wkswait
- Norris Green (Liverpool)Norris Green · L11 5BR · 11 km37.8%-12.2 vs GB15.3 wkswait
- ChesterCH1 6LT · 12 km47.3%-2.7 vs GB14.4 wkswait
- WallaseyCH44 8AT · 12 km54.3%+4.3 vs GB20.5 wkswait
- UptonCH49 0UF · 15 km52.6%+2.6 vs GB12.1 wkswait
- St Helens (Liverpool)Liverpool · WA9 1NS · 16 km40.9%-9.1 vs GB6.6 wkswait
Questions learners ask about Speke
- Is Speke an easy test centre?
- Its 40.5% pass rate in 2025/26 is below the 50.0% national average. Busy urban roads and complex junctions usually explain lower rates; knowing the local routes closes most of that gap.
- How long is the wait for a driving test at Speke?
- In August 2026 the median gap between booking and sitting a test at Speke was 8.3 weeks, and you had to look about 16.6 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 Speke driving test centre?
- Speke test centre is at Unit 3 Dakota Business Park, Skyhawk Avenue, Speke, Liverpool, L19 2QR. 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 Speke do a year?
- 8,159 car tests were conducted at Speke in 2025/26, of which 3,308 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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