In rural areas, many are dependent on cars: the desire for a driver’s license is unbroken in Germany. According to the TÜV association, a record number of driver’s license tests was reached in 2022 – however, the rate of failures has also increased enormously. According to the association, 39 percent of the theoretical tests for all driving license classes were not passed last year. That is ten percentage points more than in 2013. In the practical tests, 37 percent of the learner drivers did not pass the normal driver’s license. “Each failed test puts a mental and financial strain on the learner drivers,” said Richard Goebelt, Managing Director of the association.
Finding the reasons is difficult. From the point of view of the testing organizations, one is the increasingly complex and dense road traffic. In Goebelt’s view, it is important to provide more information about road safety in schools and at home. It is also striking that the failure rate for the driver’s license is 17, a few percentage points lower than that for the normal category B car driver’s license. According to TÜV surveys, there were around 3.6 million practical and theoretical tests in 2022. This exceeded the previous peak value of 2019 with an increase of around 20,000 practical tests and reached the pre-corona level again. In 2020 and 2021 the numbers had fallen due to the pandemic. Many driving schools had temporarily closed.
Fewer novice drivers have accidents
At the turn of the year, the Federal Association of Driving Instructor Associations also spoke of a great demand for the driver’s license and saw one reason for this in savings during the corona pandemic. People would have spent less money on trips, for example – and “have money left over to get luxury driver’s licenses like the one for a motorcycle,” Vice-Chairman Kurt Bartels told the dpa. In big cities there are also some who prefer to sit in their own car instead of in crowded buses and trains.
According to the TÜV, the driving tests have been further developed in recent years. This has contributed to the fact that fewer and fewer of the particularly endangered novice drivers have accidents. The number of 18- to 24-year-olds who died in traffic accidents fell from almost 2,750 in 1991 to 326 in 2020.
More and more driver’s license tests are being done with an automatic car, as the Federal Association of German Driving School Entrepreneurs announced a few weeks ago. According to Deutsche Automobil Treuhand (DAT), more and more drivers want to drive such cars.