Blog
Straight talk about
the licence.
The questions we get asked most often at the office — answered properly.
Lessons and compulsory drives
- 2 min read
How many special drives do you need for class B?
Twelve, and the number is set by law — which ones they are, and why nobody can waive them.
Read - 2 min read
How many driving lessons do you actually need?
Only twelve are compulsory. Why every number above that is an estimate — and what moves it.
Read - 2 min read
How many theory lessons are compulsory?
14 double lessons for a first licence, 8 for an extension — and what basic and additional material mean.
Read - 2 min read
From the first lap to test-ready
What happens in the lessons before the compulsory drives — and how you can tell you are getting somewhere.
Read - 2 min read
B197: how many manual lessons do you need?
Ten lessons in a manual and a 15-minute test drive — what is actually asked of you.
Read - 3 min read
What happens in your first driving lesson?
Not rush hour. The first lesson is an empty car park, a very patient human being and about twelve controls.
Read - 2 min read
Cross-country drives: what the five compulsory hours are for
Rural roads are statistically the deadliest in Germany. That is why five of these hours are compulsory — not because the scenery is nice.
Read - 2 min read
Motorway drives: what the four compulsory hours teach you
Joining, holding a lane, leaving — and the one thing that cannot be practised on any other road.
Read - 2 min read
Night drives: what counts as darkness, and what you practise
Three compulsory hours in darkness or twilight. In June that means 10 pm, in December half past four — and that changes the scheduling more than you would think.
Read - 2 min read
Cancelling a driving lesson: what applies, and what it costs
Ill is ill. But a lesson cancelled two hours beforehand is lost for everybody else — and that is what the notice period is about.
Read - 2 min read
Double lesson or single lesson — which gives you more?
45 minutes sounds like enough. Subtract the pick-up, the seat adjustment and the drive out of town, and see what is left.
Read
The theory and practical tests
- 2 min read
Passing the theory test: what actually helps
The app on its own is not enough. Why the 14 topics in class are what makes the difference.
Read - 2 min read
The theory test: 30 questions, 10 error points
How the test is marked, why two wrong questions can be enough — and what happens on the day.
Read - 2 min read
What happens in the practical test
55 minutes, three people in the car and one question before you set off — what to expect.
Read - 2 min read
Failed the test — what now?
Two weeks' wait, a new appointment, no new basic fee. What actually happens.
Read - 1 min read
Which language can you take the theory test in?
Twelve languages are available — which ones, what that means for you, and what applies if yours is not there.
Read - 2 min read
The most common mistakes in the practical test
Almost none of them is a driving mistake in the narrow sense. Most are looking mistakes — and those happen before the car does anything.
Read - 2 min read
Instant fail: what ends the practical test
There are no error points in the practical test. There are mistakes that end it — and they all have one thing in common.
Read - 2 min read
Test nerves: what actually helps in those 55 minutes
"Stay calm" is not advice, it is an instruction nobody can follow. These things, by contrast, can actually be done.
Read - 2 min read
The set manoeuvres — and why they usually go wrong
Not at the steering wheel. At the speed, at where you look, and at treating the task as finished before it is.
Read - 2 min read
The theory test on screen: how the appointment runs
No paper, no eraser, no guessing at the end: you know the result before you leave the building.
Read - 2 min read
Video questions in the theory test: what matters
Short clips instead of a still. They test something different from the rest of the question bank — namely whether you look early.
Read
Classes and key numbers
- 2 min read
B, B197, B78 or BF17 — which one suits you?
Four routes to a car licence, and the difference decides what you are allowed to drive afterwards.
Read - 2 min read
B197 or B78: what is the difference?
Both are tested in an automatic. Only one of them lets you drive a manual afterwards.
Read - 2 min read
Key numbers 197 and 78: what is printed on your licence?
The small numbers in column 12 decide which car you may drive. What they mean.
Read - 2 min read
BF17: is the early start worth it?
A year of driving earlier, in exchange for a year with a supervisor. What it costs and who may supervise.
Read - 2 min read
BE or B96: which trailer licence do you need?
The difference is one number: 4,250 kg. Below it a course is enough, above it there is a test.
Read - 2 min read
When do you need B96? The 4,250 kg calculation
Two numbers from the registration documents, added once — and you know which licence your combination needs.
Read - 3 min read
What may you drive on a class B licence?
Three numbers decide it: 3,500 kg, eight passenger seats, a 750 kg trailer. Everything else follows.
Read - 2 min read
Driving a motorhome on class B: what works and what does not
Up to 3,500 kg it is a vehicle like any other. The catch is not in your licence, it is in the payload.
Read - 2 min read
Renting a van on a class B licence: what to watch for
The usual rental vans weigh exactly 3,500 kg. That is no accident — and the thing that trips people up is something else entirely.
Read - 2 min read
The probationary period: two years, and what it actually means
It does not restrict what you may drive. It only changes what a single offence sets in motion.
Read - 2 min read
An offence during probation: the advanced seminar and what follows
One red light, one phone in your hand, 21 km/h too many — and two years become four.
Read - 2 min read
Towing capacity, nose weight, total mass: three numbers people constantly confuse
One decides your licence, the second what your car may pull, the third whether the outfit stays in a straight line.
Read
Changing, refreshing, converting
- 1 min read
Changing driving school: what happens to your lessons
You do not start again. What is recognised, what you need to bring, and how long it takes.
Read - 2 min read
Changing driving school in Düsseldorf: how it works
Cancellation, training record, re-registration at the authority — who does what and how long it takes.
Read - 2 min read
Refresher lessons: how many do you need?
No test, no minimum, no time limit. How a refresher actually works.
Read - 2 min read
Are refresher lessons worth it?
Six situations where they almost always are — and one where they are not.
Read - 2 min read
Driving anxiety: how to start again
Start in a car park, not on the motorway. What helps when the licence has been in a drawer for years.
Read - 2 min read
Converting or exchanging — what is the difference?
Two words, two entirely different procedures. Only one of them involves a driving school.
Read - 2 min read
Converting a foreign driving licence: what to expect
Six months, a country list and a certified translation — the process in Düsseldorf.
Read - 2 min read
Your training record: what is actually in it
One sheet, four blocks, and afterwards you know exactly how far along you are — not roughly.
Read - 2 min read
Changing driving school just before the test: is it still possible?
Yes. The question is not whether it works, but what it does to a date that is already booked.
Read - 2 min read
After years away: restarting training you never finished
Started, stopped, never completed. What still counts after five years — and what has to be checked first.
Read - 2 min read
Lost your driving licence: how to get a replacement
The entitlement is not gone, only the piece of plastic. That distinction decides how bad this is.
Read - 2 min read
Using an EU licence in Germany: what applies
No deadline, no test, no office — as long as one condition is met that hardly anybody thinks about.
Read
What it costs
- 2 min read
What does a licence cost — and what is the price made of?
Seven items, three recipients and exactly one line nobody can know in advance.
Read - 2 min read
What does a driving lesson cost — and why is it 45 minutes?
Comparing prices often means comparing different things: units, doubles and special drives are not billed alike.
Read - 2 min read
Why driving schools cost different amounts
The lowest basic fee rarely wins. What to actually look at when comparing.
Read - 2 min read
Test fees: who actually gets which money?
TÜV, the driving school and the licensing authority bill separately. Who charges what — and what falls due again on a retake.
Read - 2 min read
Paying for your licence in instalments
Nobody pays for a driving licence in one day. The bill spreads itself out — and where that is not enough, we can talk.
Read - 2 min read
Who helps pay for a driving licence?
There is no general subsidy. There are bodies that pay in individual cases — and all of them want to be asked first.
Read - 2 min read
The costs nobody mentions
Very little of it is hidden. A lot of it is overlooked — above all the parts that appear on somebody else's invoice.
Read - 2 min read
What a retest costs you again — and what it does not
Two items come back, five do not. The most expensive part is on neither list.
Read - 2 min read
Claiming a driving licence on your tax return
For class B, as a rule you cannot. The exceptions are narrow, and they all share one core.
Read
Timeline, deadlines, paperwork
- 2 min read
How long does a driving licence take?
Two to four months at the normal pace — and the three things that turn it into six.
Read - 2 min read
A driving licence in two weeks — is that real?
Yes, with conditions. What the intensive course compresses, what it does not, and where it comes unstuck.
Read - 2 min read
Applying for your licence: eye test, first aid, photo
Four things that have to be done before the application — and why it should go out on day one.
Read - 2 min read
Getting your licence around school or work
Theory in the evening and on Saturdays, lessons by diary rather than by schedule — how it works without taking leave.
Read - 2 min read
The eyesight test: where, how, and what is checked
Five minutes at an optician, one certificate, and the first of four steps before your application is done.
Read - 2 min read
The first aid course: nine units, one day, and what actually happens
Not a lecture. Nine teaching units spent kneeling on the floor pressing on a chest — and never again afterwards.
Read - 2 min read
The biometric photo for your licence
The nicest picture is rarely the right one. What makes a photo fail — and what does not.
Read - 2 min read
What happens to your application at the authority
Between handing it in and a test date sits an office that tells nobody anything. What actually goes on there.
Read - 2 min read
Theory lessons: how often, how long, and when you join
Evenings and Saturday mornings, 90 minutes a session, running in a continuous loop. You can start on any evening.
Read
Düsseldorf
- 2 min read
Driving school in Düsseldorf: how to reach us
Oststraße 122, right in the city centre — why the location says more about your lessons than about the journey.
Read - 2 min read
Your licence in Turkish, Kurdish or English
Advice in four languages, the test in twelve — and what stays in German.
Read - 2 min read
Test routes in Düsseldorf: what really awaits you
There is no route. What repeats are situations — and those can be practised.
Read - 2 min read
Learning the motorway around Düsseldorf
Five motorways in a small space, short slip roads, and interchanges that arrive faster than elsewhere.
Read - 2 min read
Learning to park in Düsseldorf
Anyone can do it on an empty car park. Between two cars in Bilk, with somebody in your mirror, it becomes practice.
Read - 3 min read
Tram tracks and restricted lanes in Düsseldorf
The Rheinbahn shares the road with you on a lot of streets. Here is what follows from that.
Read - 2 min read
The junctions that catch people out in Düsseldorf
It is not the biggest ones that cause trouble, it is the ones doing three things at once: lanes, rails and cyclists.
Read