"I was going to have a driving license this summer": more than 130,000 students are left without an exam

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With millions of vehicles immobilized by confinement measures , deserted streets, roads decongestated for more than a month and without the typical rush of drivers to get to work or take children to school, it was the perfect time for many young people who were about to take out their driving license .

The 45-minute or one-hour classes with the driving school car, which used to be barely 20 minutes or half an hour because of the classic traffic jams, would never have been as profitable for students as now. And exams would never have been so easy , with the streets only for applicants and without the nerves it produces to be surrounded by drivers eager to get anywhere.

But that cannot be. Around 130,000 students throughout Spain, according to data from Formaster (Professional Association of Training Companies in Road Safety), have seen their plans to take out their driving license imminently and are waiting to be allowed to return to receive the theoretical and practical classes that they had paid for or taking the exams they had scheduled.

The networks are full of messages from disappointed students for not being able to take out their driving license. "It really bothered me so much not to finish the driving license," complains a young woman on Twitter. "I was going to have the card before the summer, but the coronavirus appeared," says another. "I never thought I was going to live a pandemic before I took out my driving license. I was almost there ," says another bitterly. "We in 2002 were going to get our driving license this year? At this rate I will get it at the age of 35 ," jokes another.

Now, in addition, it is possible that they will not be able to remove it when the state of alarm is suspended and the situation returns to normal, because the traffic jam in the driving schools and examination centers of the General Directorate of Traffic is going to be enormous. In addition to the students who had already started the theoretical and practical classes before the pandemic, we must add the thousands of applicants who have registered in recent weeks through specialized digital platforms.

The Digital Driving School Platform (PAD), made up of the main companies in the sector, figures at 172% the increase in registrations between March 14 (the date on which the state of alarm was declared) and last April 13 .

Rise of digital driving schools

For the 130,000 students who stayed with the half-hearted training, the driving schools have continued to provide services with different tools such as virtual classrooms and have continued to deliver the content with tutorials, videos and streaming classes that help students solve doubts and mistakes. But, logically, they cannot help them with the practical classes, which are paralyzed and nobody knows when they will resume again.

Formaster has calculated that each day of normal non-activity costs the driving school sector around 6 million euros , and the accumulated losses already reach approximately 200 million euros . To this we must add that many of the driving schools have performed ERTES on their workers (teachers and administration staff) and that they continue to assume the inherent costs of the business such as the rentals, financing and loans of the vehicles with which the tests are carried out. practices.

Many driving schools are requesting aid from leasing and renting companies, financial institutions and insurers in order to be able to flex and delay payments in order to be able to continue with the business in a few months.

Now that the Government is studying the patterns of a de-escalation of the state of alarm , it is expected that it will also reach the road training sector as soon as possible. Formaster has prepared an action protocol , which will be presented to the DGT and the Provincial Traffic Headquarters, for when it returns to normal and theoretical and practical classes can be resumed.

Among the measures included in this action plan, it is requested that the dates of exams be extended so that a 'bottleneck' is not formed that damages the driving schools and the 130,000 students who are waiting to take an exam.

Formaster remembers that we are on the verge of the summer period, the season with the highest influx of students in road training centers, so many test centers, already saturated before the pandemic, can become even more saturated after the return to normal . For this reason, they request that a calendar of exam dates be made according to demand and that these 130,000 students can access the practical test as soon as possible.

In addition, Formaster asks the DGT to detail as soon as possible the security measures that will be applied inside the vehicles during practices and exams.

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