Take note: these would be new requirements for issuing driver's licenses

This April 9 ended the period of comments on a draft resolution of the Ministry of Transport that aims to make the process of issuing driving licenses in the country more rigorous. The document regulates technical and theoretical tests to assess the suitability, expertise and knowledge of drivers, as well as differentiates between experts and novices.

The regulations are based on the fact that driving is not a right, but a privilege (as established by the Constitutional Court in Judgment C-468 of 2011), so that not everyone will be able to perform that office. As well as the analysis by the National Road Safety Agency, which established the need to implement gradual or staggered evaluation schemes for obtaining the license.

The latter, especially in young people aged 16 and 17 who start driving vehicles without having fully developed the perception of risk for driving decisions, or newbies. For that reason, the process in Colombia, if the regulations are adopted, could be equated with the evaluation systems used in the world.

This idea has been around the Ministry of Transport, as explained by the newspaper El Tiempo, for at least a decade, and in order to be approved it still needs to comply with several processes, such as the creation of the Logistics Evaluation Support Centers - CALE, which are the bodies that will carry out the suitability tests behind the wheel.

These centers would be divided into Class I, II and III, corresponding in turn to the level of licenses that would have the possibility of evaluating from initial levels A1, A2, B1 and C1, following B2 and C2, as well as those of B3 and C3.

Thus, the draft resolution stipulates that those who aspire to obtain a driver's license for the first time or those who need to renew the document, must go to the CALE to present a theoretical exam and two practical tests that will be required to pass in order to start the process of issuing the “pass”.

To take the exam, the applicant must be registered with the RUNT with a certificate of physical, mental and motor coordination for driving issued by a Driver Recognition Center, as well as the driving aptitude certificate issued by an Automobile Training Center, according to the category.

In other words, it will no longer be enough that you have taken a driving course, but you will have to prove what you have learned at CALE to obtain a license. There are many criticisms and questions that have arisen around these academies and the level of knowledge of the people who graduate as drivers.

The theoretical test would be virtual and in groups. It will consist of forty (40) questions, of which twelve (12) are about attitudes and twenty-eight (28) are from the thematic nuclei of the training process: I. Safe and sustainable mobility with ten (10) questions. II. Traffic rules with six (6) questions. III. Road signs and road infrastructure with six (6) questions. IV. The vehicle with six (6) questions.

The applicant must pass 80% of the questions to “pass” the test; they can repeat it in the next 10 at no additional cost. If you pass it, you can proceed to take the practical exam, which will consist of two tests.

An individual skill test, in which the applicant's abilities to maneuver a motor vehicle that will be carried out on a closed track are evaluated. Then you will have to take the test of maneuvers on public roads, which aims to corroborate the applicant's abilities to interact with other road actors when driving the vehicle on public roads.

According to Motor magazine, novice drivers will have restrictions on driving. They will receive a corresponding license at the basic level and A1 (in the case of motorcycles), with which they will not be able to carry a companion or transit between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.

As for car licenses, newbies will receive category B1 and must drive with a companion over the age of 18 and who has a full level of suitability license (B2 onwards). After six months of issuing the document, drivers will be able to access a recategorization, presenting the test corresponding to the next level to one of the CALEs, which, in the draft project, requires new costs.

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