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Doha: Due to COVID-19 restrictions period, driving schools are witnessing huge demand for driving classes particularly for light vehicle driving licences.
“We are working now only with 50 percent of our capacity, and the number of learners is witnessing an increase in driving schools. Also there are some learners registered before COVID-19 period and so far did not join the training,” said Mohamed Al Zain Ibrahim, Executive Manager of Gulf Driving School.
He told The Peninsula that hundreds of people are on the waiting list due to the closure period, which lasted many months.
There are also other reasons behind increase in number of aspirants of driving licences like the limited number of driving schools and limited capacity of some of existing schools. Some schools have a small area, and do not accommodate a large number of cars and trainers.
Despite all this, schools doing their best to accommodate all applicants for driving training.
Driving schools have witnessed many developments and more are underway in coordination with the General Directorate of Traffic as driving licence is a common necessity for everyone nowadays and there are some companies which insist their employees must secure a driving licence.
About the percentage of success among trainees, Al Zain said that the success rate is reasonable compared to the number of trainees currently.
Regarding the demand for heavy-vehicle licences, he noted, “The demand for heavy-vehicle licences is less compared to light-vehicle driving licences.”
Regarding a question about whether new categories of professions were allowed to apply for the licence, he said that they have not received any details in this regard so far, and they also do not know when it will be allowed to work by their full capacity. The General Directorate of Traffic said earlier that it has tightened mechanisms of issuing the driving licence and the aim is to decrease the rate of injuries and deaths resulting from traffic accidents.
