No driver's license without a vaccination

Created: 12/27/2021, 7:00 AM

Lessons with a mask: Christoph Flittner and his learner drivers.

© Peter Bauersachs

The driving schools in the district are concerned about a new lockdown.

But even without the closure, the pandemic will make business difficult.

Learner drivers are subject to the 2G obligation.

That means: without a vaccination there is no driving license.

All vehicle classes are affected.

Erding

- The 2G rule has also been in effect for driving schools in Bavaria since November 24th.

This means that unvaccinated learner drivers can neither take part in theoretical nor practical lessons.

The majority of the learner drivers, however, are young people, among them the vaccination quota is only 46 percent in Germany and thus significantly below the quota for the general population.

Because of this, many unvaccinated young people have to cancel their driving lessons or do without a registration.

This situation is also stressful for the driving schools, as they are now threatened with lost sales after the closure due to the lockdowns.

And it cannot be ruled out that there will be a complete closure again.

This would be the case if the incidence was over 1000.

The numbers are falling, but Omikron could change the situation tremendously.

The driving school Flittner with locations throughout the district has so far only struggled with rejections in a few cases, explains managing director Christoph Flittner.

He's not worried about losing sales.

“In winter, the number of registrations is usually a little lower than in summer, because there are concerns about ice or snow trips,” he explains.

"For this reason I can only recommend starting with a driver's license in winter, this is often the fastest way."

The driving school has also spent a lot of money on hygiene measures and bought several air filters, so there has not yet been a single corona case, reports Flittner.

"Corona is a huge challenge for a company, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that the virus does not spread any further." Nevertheless, there are still concerns about a further lockdown.

The Obermaier driving school with locations in Taufkirchen and Erding has hardly had to deal with rejections so far, most of the learner drivers were able to show a vaccination, explains managing director Tanja Obermaier-Schreiber in an interview with our newspaper.

The 2G rule also applies to driving lessons with two-wheelers, she adds.

Only the theory test posed problems for the driving school, as 3G-Plus applies here and some test subjects have not yet been vaccinated.

The driving school wants to keep the theory lessons in presence.

"Many students prefer this because of the high number of homeschooling", describes Obermaier-Schreiber.

Despite the few cancellations so far, the Obermaier driving school is afraid that the situation will worsen again.

“The worst thing about a lockdown would be that we don't know how long it will last,” explains Obermaier-Schreiber.

In addition, this closure of public life would lead to a large backlog of learner drivers.

The Hauder driving school from Dorfen, however, has to struggle with rejections, as owner Michael Hubatius explains when asked.

Many students have not yet been vaccinated or are in quarantine, says the owner.

Some learner drivers would fall behind a bit as a result.

BENEDIKT KLINGBEIL