The sector has gathered outside the Provincial Traffic Headquarters to demand more examiners and afternoon exams. They warn that there are 18,000 students waiting and that the viability of businesses is at risk.
The driving schools in the province of Seville have raised the alarm. This Friday, dozens of owners and workers from the sector congregated outside the Provincial Traffic Headquarters in the capital, Seville, to denounce a situation they describe as unsustainable. Thousands of driving licence candidates have been waiting for months for a date to take their exams, while businesses in the sector see their activity decline day by day.
The protest, called by the Provincial Association of Driving Schools, has served to quantify the problem. According to the organisers, around 18,000 students are on the waiting list in Seville to take the practical test for licence B. This figure has more than doubled in just two years, rising from 8,000 recorded in 2023 to the current 18,000. Behind this backlog, they point to the lack of examiners at the Provincial Headquarters.
A Business on the Brink of Collapse
Alfonso Martínez, president of the provincial association, has been unequivocal: “We have businesses that we cannot sustain.” In statements during the gathering, he explained that many driving schools are seeing their income drop because they cannot schedule exams for their students. “There is a pool of students that we cannot work with to get them to take the test, as there are no officials and we are not given exams,” he lamented. The situation, according to Martínez, is pushing many businesses to the limit, as they see students complaining and, in some cases, opting to change centres or abandon the process.
The sector representative has openly criticised the response from the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT). “The DGT does little about it,” he asserted, also rejecting any doubts about the quality of training provided by driving schools. The lack of examiners is, in his view, the main bottleneck, and the solution lies in strengthening the staff or allowing tests in the afternoon. Expanding exams to Saturdays, he ruled out, is not enough to tackle the problem.
Waits of Up to Six Months
One of the most concerning aspects for students is the waiting time. According to the driving schools, candidates can wait up to six months to retake the practical exam if they fail the first time. This delay often causes students to lose practice and require additional lessons, further increasing the cost of the process. “We are outraged,” Martínez stated, insisting on the need for urgent measures.
The protest in Seville has not been an isolated event. It has been part of a day of simultaneous mobilisations in several Andalusian provinces. The Federal Union of Driving Schools has emphasised that the demands are shared across the sector in the autonomous community. Leopoldo Cotán, representative of the platform ‘More Exams, More Examiners’, has stated that they have official documentation that substantiates the magnitude of the problem. “We can prove that there are over 80,000 students in Andalusia waiting to take their exams,” he asserted.
Cotán detailed that in Seville, the number of students has risen from 8,000 in 2023 to 18,000 currently, while the capacity to conduct exams has decreased due to the lack of examiners. The situation, far from improving, is worsening, and the sector fears that without decisive intervention from the DGT, the collapse will become chronic.
Meanwhile, students continue to wait. For many, obtaining a driving licence has turned into an odyssey that can last months, when it used to be resolved in weeks. The driving schools, for their part, are demanding an urgent meeting with the traffic authorities to seek a solution. They assert that the next gathering will be in the streets if there are no advances.
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