About 5,000 people are waiting their turn to take the practical driving test in the regions of Lleida, where the delay can already reach four months. The situation fully affects the 44 driving schools in the territory and has rekindled criticism due to the lack of examiners.
The waiting list has doubled in a few years
The president of the Associació Provincial d"Autoescoles de Lleida, Raquel Castro, warns that the jam does not stop growing.
"We have gone from the 2,500 students on the waiting list that there were in 2018 to the current 5,000, and the situation is going in crescendo" - Raquel Castro, president of the Associació Provincial d"Autoescoles de Lleida
The bottleneck is mainly concentrated in the practical test, where applicants can be forced to wait up to four months to take the exam. In parallel, the percentage of successful candidates stands at 50.9% in the practical exam and 42.9% in the theoretical one.
Lack of examining staff
Four out of nine examiners are currently on sick leave or with union dedication, a circumstance that further reduces the capacity to examine in Lleida. The staff deficit is one of the main complaints of the sector, which demands stable measures and not temporary solutions.
The president of the Federació d"Autoescoles de Catalunya, Raül Viladrich, maintains that the coverage of foreseen places has been clearly insufficient.
"Last year, 44 new examiner positions were created in Catalunya and only 15 ended up arriving, 34%. That is, 29 positions have not been filled. They must stabilize staff with people from the territory or incentivize them to prevent them from changing destination in months. Only patches are made" - Raül Viladrich, president of the Federació d"Autoescoles de Catalunya
Union criticisms and response of the administration
From the CSIF union in Lleida, its president, Modesto Berciano, demands an immediate intervention to unblock the situation.
"The subdelegate of the Government, José Crespín, must intervene to remedy this situation, which is deplorable" - Modesto Berciano, president of the CSIF union in Lleida
Berciano adds that the pressure on the staff is having direct consequences.
"The examiners do more work than they should and end up bursting due to the work pressure they have" - Modesto Berciano, president of the CSIF union in Lleida
In the face of these criticisms, the sub-delegation maintains that the DGT is applying measures. Meanwhile, the delays continue to affect thousands of students in Lleida and the sector insists that the problem will not be resolved if the staff is not reinforced stably in the territory.