Driving students return to streets after three-month pause

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Driving practice in category B has been allowed again for a week, and streets are full of instruction vehicles, Latvian Radio reported March 22.

The ban of practice in driving schools had been in force for three months. Currently, there is not enough room for everyone who wants a driving licence, but only those who started learning by 20 December last year, when the restrictions on driving practice were introduced.

Representatives of the driving schools surveyed by Latvian Radio acknowledged that interest in driving practice is high. The sign-up list of two weeks filled in one day, said Jānis Vanks, director of the Safe Driving School.

But due to restrictions, driving instructors don't have a full working day. They can only deliver five lessons a day, which is far less than it was under normal conditions. And yet the instruction cars have returned to the traffic noticeably.

“Today I already received a brief comment from my colleagues about the feeling that other road users had forgotten about having such vehicles with M letters, because sometimes the behavior of other traffic participants is very strange. (..) And everyone needs to get used again,” Vanks said.

"Instructors don't complain, the schedules are full. There are no complaints at the moment, but let's see how it will be. Many have failed in this time of crisis and abandoned their training," said Zigmārs Jansons, director of the Presto school.

There is a new trend during the pandemic: the demand for a driver's licence is increasing. "The client's average age had even soared. Not only did young people come to training, but also older people who did not think they needed licenses until now," Vanks said.

Another aspect that increased demand for driving licences is that people are often out of work due to the crisis, so there is a need to retrain and the driving licence is a necessity. "Supply service, courier services, courier mail, they need driving licences", said Maris Silinieks, marketing director of the recruiting company Workingday.

 

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