Driving schools are clearing their backlog: the Traffic Guard of the Civil Guard will act as examiners

Driving schools have been struggling for some time now, which has caused serious delays in holding practical driving tests to obtain a driving licence. At present there are around 400,000 Spaniards who have passed the theory test but have not been able to take the practical part due to a shortage of examiners. Obviously, this whole situation has been made worse over the course of this year by the pandemic we are still suffering.

Fortunately, it seems the situation will be resolved during 2021. To ensure practical driving tests are carried out at a pace that clears the backlog, the Traffic Guard of the Civil Guard will be involved. The armed institution will authorise several officers to carry out the tests and help ease the bottleneck this circumstance has created.

Agreement between the Civil Guard and driving schools

The Directorate-General for Traffic has announced that several Civil Guard officers, assigned to Traffic and on reserve status, will be responsible for conducting the practical tests. This possibility arose after several meetings between the Spanish Confederation of Driving Schools (CNAE) and the DGT.

With the Civil Guard’s approval, during 2021 a certain number of personnel will receive training to act as examiners and will be able to conduct the test. The total number of officers who will join this service, and under what conditions, has not yet been confirmed, but it is expected that everything will be finalised before the end of the year.

More examiners in 2021

In addition to this emergency solution, the DGT wants to offer more options for taking the test. In 2018 there were a total of 734 examiners, and in 2020 this number rose to 802. This increase could not be very useful in a year when lockdown considerably delayed the holding of tests.

Over the coming year the number of examiners will increase somewhat more, by 75 people by the end of 2021. It is worth noting the efforts of the Ministry of the Interior to shorten the timeframes for obtaining a driving licence, which is so essential for work.