It is a very common scenario for school learners that most of the time all the lesson slots are fully taken. It can be very challenging and need a lot of luck to get a try-sell slot on short notice.
As mentioned in my other post where I shared about the driving school enrolment process, it is recommended to book as many as 15-20 lessons in advance first over the next 2-3 months ahead if possible.
Table of Contents
Selling your driving slot is easy
As I mentioned, you can book as many lessons as possible and you do not be too worried if you are unable to make it as you should be able to sell them easily. But getting a slot might not be as easy, especially with the timing you wanted.
Of course, I will recommend trying to plan your schedule (like your work or studies) to fit your lesson to minimize any trouble or lesson delay. I feel once you start your driving journey, you should put it one of your top priorities to complete your driving course as soon as possible.
Believe one, once your get your license and the feeling will be like one heavy stone on your back has been removed.
In SSDC, there are 2 types of selling and they labeled this as cancellation is >72 hours and if less than 72 hours it will release your slot as try-sell
Cancellation
I just checked the FAQ in SSDC, each student is only allowed 18 counts of cancellation, any additional cancellation, is chargeable for $5.35. I think this is the new policy after I got my driving license. Believe the main reason to prevent students from abuse or anyhow book lessons in advance. I am not sure whether these 18 counts apply to the try-sell slot as well.
So if you cancel your slot >72 hours in advance, you will get your refund back to your account immediately.
Try-Sell Slot
For the Try-Sell slot, when you try to sell your slot away to other students it is less than 72 hours away from the lesson. The difference from the cancellation will be, that it only gets back your refund once other students buy your slot.
Based on my personal experience, I do not have any issues selling within 48 hours or a day before my lesson. The reason I sell of course due to my work and other family commitment.
How To Get Try-Sell Slots in SSDC for your Driving Lessons?
For me, maybe about 40%-50% of my lessons are from try-sell slots and my method is it still works as of now. Because during the last part of my revision which is Oct 2021, SSDC did put a restriction on the refresh button for booking the lessons.
Tip #1
In the past whenever I am free like having my meal, waiting for transport, before I go to bed, etc, I will log in to SSDC to refresh until I am able to get the slot that I want for this week. And SSDC website is one of the most frequent websites I visit during my learning.
Tip #2
Another thing I notice usually happened in the late morning, there will be slots for all time slots released for that day. I did ask one of my usual instructors when I notice this pattern, likely it could be morning shifts instructor decided to take up OT to meet the demands.
For the refresh daily limit, it seems like there is a cap of 100 refreshes can be done daily. So use your refresh button wisely.
During that time, there are people providing services in marketplaces like the carousel, whereby they are using bots or running some automation to auto book lessons for lessons.
Wrapping Up
Hopefully, these 2 simple tips able to increase your chance to get your practical lesson.