The mandatory exchange for driver's licenses is pending - and causes a lot of work for the Freising driver's license office.
Thousands of “rags” have to be exchanged.
District
– Shortly before, the decision was changed: Two days before the first deadline for the mandatory exchange of old driver’s licenses expired, the conference of interior ministers announced last Monday that this deadline would be extended by six months – due to the ongoing burden of the pandemic.
Not only affected driver's license holders, but also the driver's license office in the Freising district office should be happy about this news.
(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)
By 2033, any driving license issued before 19 January 2013 will have to be converted to the new EU card-sized driving licence.
The first batch includes people born between 1953 and 1958 with a certificate issued up to the end of 1998.
According to district office spokesman Robert Stangl, this affects around 8,000 citizens in the Freising district.
Driver's license office has been increased in terms of staff
Accordingly, a lot of work has to be done: “Several dozen applications are received by the driving license office at the Freising district office every day, but it is estimated that several thousand driving licenses still have to be exchanged whose owners have not yet submitted an application.” Due to the exchange period that has been in effect up to now, these applications are currently available processed with priority.
"The processing time here is currently around three weeks, and the trend is rising," says Stangl.
Because the exchange obligation did not come as a surprise, the driver's license office was increased in autumn 2021 with a view to this and the generally growing population in the district.
The but: "Since the extensive training is not yet complete, the available capacities have not yet been fully exploited," reports the spokesman for the district authority.
Novice drivers have to wait three months for processing
The resulting waiting times are currently also being noticed by novice drivers, reports Dirk Dlugosch, driving instructor from Freising.
The reason for this is, on the one hand, the driver's license exchange and, on the other hand, Corona.
“Before the pandemic, getting the required stamp at the registration office was a matter of 15 minutes.
Now it's four weeks.
Until 2019, the processing of the driver's license application in the district office took two to three weeks, now it's three months," says Dlugosch.
That's why his advice to young people who want to get a driver's license is to submit the application at least four months before the test.
"The earliest possible is six months before the exam."
This is confirmed by district office spokesman Stangl: The processing time for other applications at the driver's license office is up to twelve weeks.
"However, this only has a limited connection with the mandatory exchange, but is also due to the fact that the work processes had to be changed due to the corona pandemic and extensive legal changes have come into force." These included, for example, the passenger transport license for commercial drivers or the driving qualification certificate for professional driver.