How will the new changes in driving courses reflect... Driver applicants will now have a limited number of test appearances after we have further changes to the Road Traffic Act… Hristo Radkov, chairman of the management board of the Bulgarian Association of Drivers, spoke to FAKTI on the subject.
- Mr. Radkov, new requirements for obtaining a driver's license are now in force. It is claimed that the rules for the work of driving schools are being tightened in this way. Is that so?
- It is certain that this will make the work of the training centers more difficult, which will lead to an increase in the price of the course, but without changing the quality of training. At the moment, realistically, the training is not bad and there is no good reason to change it. Just maybe more attention should be paid to the exams.
- According to the changes in Ordinance No. 38 on the conditions and procedure for conducting the exams, the candidate will have the right to appear for a theoretical exam no more than four times within six months after completing his studies. Why is this important?
- This is important only for the bureaucrats, and for the training centers it will not matter at all. As we know, the theory exam is conducted on a tablet, in front of a camera and there is no way to be manipulated. If we conditionally assume that in the first 4 appearances the student was sloppy or had some problems that prevented him from learning the theory, and for the fifth appearance he sat down and learned the material - why should we stop him?
- Also the candidate is allowed to appear for the practical test not more than four times within six months after taking the leaflets. If it doesn't pass, it drives a new course… And it pays… Right?
- Exactly, with a few clarifications. If a student takes the theory test and passes it, then goes to the training ground and passes it, but is cut off at the “urban”, then he will have to take the theory test and the training ground again after completing the next one course. Do you realize that these changes are written by completely illiterate people?
- Will the restriction on taking exams make driver candidates more prepared?
- Absolutely - NO. The only effect will be the strengthening of corrupt practices, because before the possibility of having to pay a new rate and this “treat” someone, the scales will weigh in the direction of “… an offer that is hard to refuse.
- More interesting are changes in Ordinance No. 37, which concerns the work of auto training schools. Training hours will be entered for each student to know where and how much they have ridden. And everything is tracked by GPS system?
- Currently, the hours are also entered for each student, but they are entered on a card that is signed by the student. It is good to note that there were no reports from trainees that they did not receive their theory or practice lessons.
The howl that a group of people makes on this issue can only tell us that someone is chasing some kind of interest, why not a corrupt one.
It is very interesting to note here that some people, pretending to be driving instructors, constantly say that there were irregularities in other schools, not theirs, but how do they know this? This should be investigated by the Consumer Protection Commission (CPC) to determine whether it is true or not.
- The idea of the changes is to have full digitization of the information about the courses and a guarantee that the candidates really drove during their training. Who will process this information…
- A very precise question in which, as they say, “the dog is buried”.
Before I answer your question, I want to point out one fact. In recent years, the Ministry of Transport has been undergoing a general "digitalization", and the effect is a massive duplication of tickets in the BDZ. This happened even for the last few days. All this is happening in a time when there is internet, connection between stations and a number of other amenities. But… When digitization is done by analog people, that's actually the effect, it's like we're going back to the reality of the 1970s.
Back to our question. On an annual basis, there are about 150,000 students in our country who have to undergo practical training, which amounts to 31 hours for each. That makes 465,000 hours of training that will have to be followed by employees of the Executive Agency ”Automotive Administration” (Yaaaah). This makes as a work commitment the need of about 260 employees who have to work only this throughout the year. We are only talking about practical training here! More IAAA employees will be needed to monitor the teaching of the theory and to monitor the exams taking place.
The entire staff of this agency is currently about 660 employees, which means that there are no people there for this monitoring.
From all this, we draw the logical conclusion that only certain study centers will be monitored for the purpose of harassment or racketeering. It is logical to think that someone introduces this “digital bat” perhaps for personal gain. Because when it is seen that there is no resource in the agency for this monitoring, they will transfer it to a private company, which is most likely already ready for it, and its owners will thus “retire” that even their children and their grandchildren. To support this I will give some facts. There are several institutions that are supposedly concerned about road safety and the training of students. But according to the statistics of the Ministry of Interior, for the past year there were 250,000 "young drivers" who caused 920 serious accidents, this means that 0.3% of these drivers caused such an accident. Also, about 70% of the course participants successfully pass the driver's license test the first time, which means only one thing - that they are well prepared. After all this data, I leave it to your readers to guess who and why is so keen to introduce this “digital bat”.