Harlescott LGV Driving Test Site Closes, But Dulson is Open.

It was recently announced that Harlescott LGV, Shrewsbury's only vocational HGV driving test site will permanently close on the 20th March 2020. The site has been operating for over 30 years and would be the only place in Shrewsbury or the surrounding area to take your HGV Class 2 or Class 1 vocational DVSA driving test. This site was also used for PSV minibus, coach and cat B+E car and trailer tests etc. 

There will be no replacement public site. The closest sites will be Wrexham or Wolverhampton. Luckily for Shrewsbury learners Dulson Training planned for this almost 5 years ago and we opened our own Shrewsbury test site. 

The large Harlescott LGV facility is used by VOSA as a local base, offices and was used for HGV MOT testing. As part of the DVSA future plans this site was set to close. Rumours started to surface around 6 years ago as they closed other similar sites throughout the UK. Almost five years ago it was made public that Harlescott LGV would close but not exact date was confirmed. Things began to change when they stopped using the site for HGV MOT tests and they talked about the site closure being early 2017. 

The 2017 closure did not materialise and the site continued to be active until now. DVSA Officially announced that the final test day will be 20th March 2020. No driving tests can be booked after this date, any tests already booked after this date would have to be transferred to another public DVSA test site. These options are Llay in Wrexham or Featherstone in Wolverhampton. 

You will no longer be able to book or take a vocational driving test in Shrewsbury at a public driving test site. As soon as this news became more than gossip in 2014 we made our plan. The result of this plan was a fully operating private driving test site in Shrewsbury for our use. Allowing local people to practice and take their test in Shrewsbury and not have to travel to unknown locations. 

After months of searching for a suitable facility we started to get concerned, the site must tick a lot of DVSA boxes. After substantial planning, time and investment we had a site at Roden ready to be approved. Unfortunately the DVSA declared the site to rural, being a 5 minute drive from the hectic Shrewsbury test routes. Back to square one, we still took on this site as a main base for our Shropshire training courses. 

It is difficult to find the correct geographical location, correct amount of space for HGV Class 1, accessibility, planning restraints and the ability to make the site sterile of all traffic while testing takes place. But we found it, after negotiating a long term agreement the site was secured and approved by the DVSA at Battlefield, Shrewsbury. Located on the A49 on an already used driving test route it was the perfect site. We started testing from this site at the end of 2016. 

At this point there was not a lot of positives to having this site because Harlescott remained open, although we did not know when the closure would happen. We where ready!  It did allow us to practice on a perfect test replica site and the eventually we started booking a few days of tests at the site while continuing to use Harlescott LGV most of the time. They are only 1 mile apart. 

Dulson Training has continued to grow and expand the amount of staff and equipment, we started booking more and more tests at our private test site. We could not get enough tests at the public site and we found having our own site had a really positive effect on learners confidence. Learners practiced all week at our site and the examiner visited the site to conduct the test, learners already felt familiar with their surroundings. 

We felt that once Harlescott LGV closed we would not want to train Shrewsbury customers in Wolverhampton or Wrexham. That was our reason for opening our private site. Now that Shrewsbury will not have a public driving test site the only place to take a HGV test in Shrewsbury is at Dulson Training. 

Providing a service to Shrewsbury learners to be able to learn and test in Shrewsbury was very important to us. We set up an identical site in 2018 at Telford to give people in Telford the same opportunity. Learn and test in Telford at our Hortonwood private driving test site. There has never been a public site in Telford for HGV driving tests, you would choose to travel to either Shrewsbury or Wolverhampton. 

At Dulson Training Ltd we offer bespoke and fully managed driver training packages for all vehicle categories. Helping the learner from start to finish. We have excellent pass rates that are double the national average, practice and test at the same site, free driving assessments and consultations and finance packages to spread the costs of training. Our extensive fleet of equipment is new and easy to operate and we are a National Register of Instructors (NRI) approved training and exam centre. Offering Driver CPC and driver training throughout the West Midlands, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Mid Wales.