Bukit Batok Driving Centre’s new practical lesson slots on weekends

Extra slots at BBDC aim to help ease long waiting times for learners who want to quickly get their driving licence, said a BBDC customer service officer.

Learners must join a waiting list before calling the BBDC hotline on Friday mornings to check whether slots are available. If they find an open slot, they can book it after paying for the lesson, as well as the $45 surcharge.

The BBDC customer service officer added that more than 100 learners are now on the waitlist. About 15 to 20 slots become available every weekend and are usually snapped up quickly on a first-come, first-served basis.

Hakkeem Nasira, 23, who recently graduated from university, said she enrolled for Class 3A lessons at BBDC in July and found that the earliest practical lesson slot she could book was in February 2027.

She wants to get her licence before starting work in about six months, she added. She will consider paying a premium for the weekend slots if no earlier slot opens up, for instance through a cancellation.

But SMU student Choo Ying Ern, 19, is not keen to pay more for Class 3A lessons at BBDC. She said: “When the prices increased at the beginning of the year, I was already thinking twice about getting my licence.”

Some learners try their hand at “camping” – which means repeatedly check the booking portal for slots. Others turn to people who offer to give up their slots for a price.

One learner, who asked not to be named, told The Straits Times that she pays about $6 more than the original lesson price to buy a slot from sellers on the messaging platform Discord.

The cost of the BBDC weekend peak slots is now similar to the price charged by private driving instructors. Private instructors, who often charge higher prices, are losing ground to the major driving centres, but the private route often does not have long wait times.

Full-time national serviceman Javier Gan, 20, who is taking Class 3A lessons with a private instructor, said booking a lesson slot is easier for him than it is for his friends who go to the major driving centres.

“It was not a difficult decision to go private,” he said.

Private driving instructor Aman Aljunied, 70, said he got the most number of requests for classes in 2026 since he began giving private lessons in 2023. He cut his intake from more than 70 learners at the beginning of the year to about 30 to 35, so waiting times for classes are not too long.  

Some private instructors, like John Tan, 71, are raising their prices. He hiked prices twice in the past year in response to competition from public centres, as well as rising car maintenance, COE and fuel prices.

ComfortDelGro Driving Centre in Ubi hired more instructors and expanded its car fleet by 10 per cent in 2025 to keep up with growing demand, but it said there are no plans now to add more lesson slots.