Driver's license exchange: the deadline is expired - interior ministers are still making important decisions about Corona
Created: 2022-01-20 05:14
By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi
The deadline for exchanging old driving licenses has been extended.
© Andreas Arnold/dpa
Millions of driving licenses in Germany have to be exchanged.
The interior ministers of the federal states have now made an important decision about Corona.
Update from January 19, 5 p.m.:
The conference of interior ministers extended the deadline for exchanging driver’s licenses for those born between 1953 and 1958 by half a year until July 19. The state offices justified the decision to
the
BR
by saying that in many places there were still no applications for exchange and the authorities in Upper Palatinate and Lower Bavaria had their hands full.
Several examples show the lack of applications and the high burden on the authorities. In the district of Schwandorf, as of Monday
(January 17)
, apparently only just under 400 exchange applications had been made, with the total number of driving licenses to be exchanged amounting to around 7,000. In the city of Amberg, the officials have had to fight an immense rush since mid-December after applications were initially received with restraint. Only 1,100 of around 3,000 bills were exchanged. According to the authorities in Amberg, there will be another 500 appointments by the end of March.
While the employees at the Landshut district office also state that they are confronted with a high level of stress due to the increasing number of applications, things are apparently different in the Deggendorf district. Affected drivers received their application papers in the middle of last year by post, which is why around 4,000 driving licenses could already be exchanged in 2021, reports the
BR
. Similar to Deggendorf, the situation in the district of Neumarkt is relaxed. As of Monday
(January 17)
, 85 percent of the approximately 5,000 registered driver's licenses were exchanged there, it said.
First report:
Munich - The time has come: Due to an EU directive, older driver's licenses are no longer valid.
Accordingly, 43 million people in Germany have to exchange their driving licenses.
Various deadlines have been set for this.
The deadline for a first group is actually already running out today
(January 19)
.
However, an important decision came from the interior ministers of the federal states just shortly before.
The deadline should be extended by a few months.
Driver's license exchange: Conference of interior ministers extends the deadline by half a year - no fine for the time being
The trigger for the large driver's license exchange is an EU directive in which a change to the uniform and, above all, non-forgeable driver's license document is ordered. Furthermore, all documents should be collected in a database in order to prevent possible misuse. All certificates issued before January 19, 2013 are affected, as documents issued after this date already meet the requirements. If a timely exchange is missed, there is only a warning fine of 10 euros for motorcycle and car classes, but the following applies to truck and bus driver's licenses: If the deadline has expired, a criminal offense will be committed.
According to the Federal Council, the exchange should be carried out in several stages in order to prevent organizational chaos given the large number of people affected.
Those born between 1953 and 1958 actually only had until today
(January 19)
to exchange their so-called gray or pink “rags” or GDR driver’s licenses.
But now the conference of interior ministers intervened with a decisive verdict.
Due to the corona pandemic, the conference decided to extend the deadline by six months to July 19, 2022.
The corresponding year group still has time until then and does not have to pay a fine for the time being.
Bavaria's interior minister and chairman of the interior ministers' conference, Joachim Herrmann (CSU), announced that the state would immediately submit an application to amend the driver's license regulation to the Bundesrat.
Until the new deadline comes into force, the police should not levy a warning fine.
In addition, Herrmann asked all those affected to take care of the exchange “immediately”.
Driving license exchange: Deadline extended for six years - Ministry of Transport and ADAC welcome
Both the Federal Ministry of Transport and the ADAC welcomed the interior ministers' decision. A spokeswoman for the ministry said the aim is to make the driver's license exchange as effective and at the same time as citizen-friendly as possible. Last year, the ministry took the pandemic situation as an opportunity to ask the responsible countries whether they considered it sensible and necessary to postpone the exchange deadlines due to the corona.
The ADAC explained that the interior ministers of the federal states were reacting with their decision to bottlenecks in the offices due to the increasing number of corona diseases.
"For the affected driver's license holders, the decision brings the certainty that they can continue to drive with their old driver's license in the coming months without having to worry about fines," said the ADAC.
Irrespective of this, you should quickly use the extension of the deadline and make an appointment with the driver's license office as soon as possible.
The ADAC had previously announced that the local driver's license office was often experiencing bottlenecks when making appointments due to Corona.
(bb)