The points recovery courses are suspended in almost all of Spain due to a change in the regulations

2023-07-17 09:53:12

If you have lost points on your card or even if you have a loss of validity due to having exhausted your balance of points, you can take re-education courses in subsidized centers to partially recover points or recover the permit or license that you have lost. Last year, more than 7,600 students attended points recovery courses from July 19 to August 31.

But this year, according to reports from the UTE Permiso por Puntos, the entity that was awarded the public tender for the management and delivery of road awareness and re-education courses, many of these drivers may find themselves with the problem of not being able to take the corresponding course. .

This is due to the entry into force of Royal Decree Law 5/2023, on June 30, which replaced the administrative concession system implemented since 2005 by a new simple authorization system.

The UTE Permiso por Puntos maintains that the absence of a transitional regime, which would allow gradual adaptation to the new conditions, makes it impossible to maintain the current system for longer. This transitory period that this joint venture claims has been provided only for Catalonia and the Basque Country, which allows them to continue providing the service with all the legal guarantees.

“We are forced to interrupt the provision of this essential public service, being aware that this will affect thousands of drivers who need to recover points for their driving licenses,” say UTE sources. From his point of view, this situation is due to a lack of foresight and improvisation by the Government when proposing a transition between the two models, so “we hope they can provide a solution as soon as possible.”

There are currently, throughout Spain, approximately 6,000 students enrolled in these courses, most of whom depend on them to get their driving license back and even to keep their jobs.

To prevent the chaos that this situation could cause, the UTE Permiso por Puntos took the initiative from the moment of the publication of the Royal Decree Law and alerted the Government, through the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) and the Ministry of the Interior, on this situation and has insisted on the need for an immediate correction in the aforementioned Royal Decree Law, where the transitional period is included.

Despite this, they assure that the Government has not responded to this urgent call to action “which forces us to announce that, as of next Wednesday, July 19, this UTE will not start any course, as it has already been communicated to the DGT and the Ministry, last Monday, July 11.

The General Directorate of Traffic has indicated that in the first ten days more than 140 centers have requested their authorization as point centers. “We must remember that in the previous concession system there were 360 ​​centers available to the public, where more than 97% of the population had a center less than 30 kilometers by road, taking into account equitable territorial distribution, where there were no first-class citizens. and second-class citizens”, they clarify.

so that the DGT If a driving school or a dangerous goods training center is authorized, an inspection visit must be completed prior to its authorization. “In the case of the point recovery centers, we hope that the lack of resources in the different traffic headquarters and local offices does not obviate these inspections,” they lament from the UTE Permit for Points.