Jesús, who runs a family-owned driving school, is watching his business unravel as Spain’s traffic authority, the Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT), struggles to keep up with demand. The pressure reflects a wider staffing shortfall: sector estimates in October 2026 put the national deficit at about 300 driving-test examiners, with practical-test waits exceeding four months in some provinces. For driving schools, the gridlock is more than an inconvenience: it is an existential threat.
“Students don’t want to pay for lessons if they know they can’t take the exam for months,” Jesús explains. Why keep investing in classes when the final hurdle is nowhere in sight? So, many learners are suspending or postponing their training, cutting into driving schools’ revenue. Castilla y León had 58 examiners, a number the Confederación de Autoescuelas said was still insufficient. Its representative Blanco said the sector was awaiting the arrival of 100 examiner positions from the 2025 recruitment process, but that they would not meet the country’s needs. “We are waiting for the 100 positions from the 2025 recruitment lead, but they will not cover the needs of the whole country,” he said, as reported by ABC.
Students can pause their spending, but driving-school owners cannot pause their bills. Vehicles sit idle in parking lots, yet monthly car-loan payments remain due. Insurance and maintenance bills keep coming, as do municipal taxes. The financial pressure is relentless, and fixed costs do not wait for the DGT to resolve its staffing crisis. The shortage has been linked to years of staffing depletion and the incomplete replacement of retiring examiners. Meanwhile, the growing queue of candidates can disrupt new enrolments and limit schools’ capacity to keep operating.
Payroll is the most acute challenge. Instructors and administrative staff depend on their salaries, and social-security contributions must be paid in full every month, regardless of how many lessons are taught. For small business owners like Jesús, the fear of missing payroll or being forced into layoffs is a constant worry. “We have to keep paying our staff, even if there’s no work,” he says. The strain reaches beyond examination offices: a sector report cited waits of up to four months in the Balearic Islands and described difficulties recruiting instructors and examiners. It put a driving instructor’s typical monthly pay at about €2,300 gross, or roughly €1,800 net.
Zamora shows how a local staffing gap can bring practical tests to a complete halt. In October, the province had five authorized examiner posts, only two of them filled. A medical absence temporarily left just one examiner active, and tests were suspended. More than 1,000 candidates were on the waiting list. Government Subdelegate Ángel Blanco García said the problem had been visible since July. The announced response was an itinerant examiner for about a month, alongside a newly appointed examiner expected to take up a permanent post around a month later. That would bring the operational workforce to three in the short term, with four as the longer-term target, still below the five posts listed for the province.
The scale of the backlog is also evident in Málaga, where 18,000 candidates were reported to be waiting for practical tests, with waits of up to three months. The province had 26 examiners and nine vacancies, information from figures discussed during a Málaga Provincial Council debate. A motion urged the Government to fill those vacancies and called for more capacity for heavy-vehicle tests. It also proposed decentralized extraordinary examinations, backed by a standing pool of interim examiners to cover absences and retirements.
The extent of the shortage is disputed in some areas. In Burgos, driving schools cited 2025 figures showing four of seven examiner posts filled, or 62.5%. Raúl Galán, director of the Provincial Traffic Headquarters in Burgos, argued that the historic staffing level was no longer needed because of population ageing and lower birth rates. He said weekly examinations were not congested. The contrast reflects a broader disagreement: industry representatives measure capacity against established staffing levels and candidate demand, while the administration’s view may account for demographic changes.
This situation has created a damaging cycle. Students who continue taking lessons may need additional practice to retain their skills while waiting for an exam slot. That raises the total cost of getting a licence and makes it less attractive to new learners. Those who stop lessons risk losing proficiency, potentially increasing the chance of failing and adding to the queue. Driving-school owners have called on the Ministry of the Interior and the DGT to address examiner shortages, arguing that retirements are not being replaced quickly enough and new recruitment falls short of demand.
The impact extends beyond driving schools. Young people who need a licence to access job opportunities are left in limbo, and communities across Spain are feeling the economic effects. The DGT’s staffing and exam-scheduling challenges have become a national issue, alongside calls for broader reforms to Spain’s traffic management system. These include proposals for new tolls to address congestion and funding shortfalls, an issue explored in detail in this analysis of Catalonia’s push for nationwide highway tolls.
The bottleneck threatens the viability of driving schools and disrupts the training pipeline for new drivers. Industry representatives have called for larger examiner rosters and shorter waits, describing access to a driving licence as a public service. Unless the DGT and the Government expand examination capacity and make staffing more resilient to vacancies and absences, financial pressure on schools and delays for candidates are likely to persist.
