Opportunities for Professional Drivers

The General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) plans to approve a modification of the General Drivers Regulation that will mean the transposition of Directive 2006/16 of the European Union into legislation, with several interesting novelties, especially for professional drivers.

The first change will mean that vehicles weighing between 3,500 kilos – the current limit – and 4,250 kilos can be driven by holders of a category B permit, a normal car licence, with the increase in weight due to its conversion to alternative energies, due to the higher weight of the batteries. Thus, it allows vehicles that are transformed to adapt to cleaner and more sustainable mobility to continue to be driven, through the national territory, with the B permit that is more than two years old, although always without a trailer.

Likewise, the minimum age required to access permits from C, the so-called professional permit, is lowered. This responds to a need for harmonisation with Europe and to respond to the needs of the population and companies.

On the one hand, the employer and professional associations had requested this reduction in age, in order to cover their driver needs; at the same time, this creates job opportunities for some young people, which is why the age of access to these permits has been lowered, also taking into account the possession or not of the CAP, in its different modalities, to lower the age of access to professional permits more or less.

Finally, also relating to professional drivers, Annex IV has been modified to allow, although studied individually and on a case-by-case basis, the possibility of driving with adaptations in the case of the locomotor system – previously strictly prohibited. The introduction of new technologies – for example, the automatic transmission in almost all heavy vehicles – and the improvement of prostheses and adaptations have made it possible to allow, after an individualised study, driving with this type of adaptations.

Other changes

In addition, the reform has introduced other modifications. For example:

The exam time in the theoretical test has been extended, since when introducing videos in the questions it was necessary to extend the time depending on the length of the video.

The percentage of error allowed in the applicants’ responses has also been clarified, stating that it will not exceed 10% of errors.

In the practical motorcycle exam, it has been specified what garments are considered “the appropriate equipment” with which the applicant must appear, to avoid doubts about which are the mandatory garments in the exam.