Over 300 driving tests planned in Lleida

Driving tests are the bottleneck here — not lessons, not paperwork, the actual practical exam. In Lleida, that bottleneck got bad enough that the DGT is now planning a special Saturday session on May 16 with more than 300 practical tests. The point is simple: move a chunk of people through fast and stop the waiting list from swallowing the start of summer. That matters because the queue had already climbed to about 5,000 pending candidates in March, with waits stretching to four months. ### Why is Lleida doing exams on a Saturday? Because the normal weekday system is not clearing the pileup. The extraordinary session is part of a state-level shock plan the DGT is piloting first in Lleida and Navarra, and the practical tests are specifically for class B licences — the standard car licence. Saturday testing is basically extra production capacity, added outside the usual calendar to squeeze more candidates through without waiting for a full staffing fix. (segre.com) ### What exactly changed this week? The concrete move is that the Spanish government’s subdelegation in Lleida said more than 300 practical exams are expected on Saturday, May 16. That turns the earlier plan into an actual scheduled operation, not just a promise to study options. Several itinerant examiners are being temporarily assigned to the area for the push. (segre.com) ### Why did the queue get so long? The short version is examiner scarcity. Local reporting said nearly half of Lleida’s driving examiners were on sick leave in April, while demand kept building. Auto schools described the situation as unsustainable, and the result was predictable — students could finish training but still sit around waiting months for a test slot. (segre.com) ### Why does “itinerant examiners” matter? Because they are the fastest lever the DGT can pull. Training and hiring permanent examiners takes time, but moving examiners between territories lets the agency patch the worst pressure points first. Lleida had already been using two itinerant examiners and voluntary overtime before this bigger intervention, which tells you the local office was already trying to hold the line. (segre.com) ### Is 300 exams actually a big deal? Yes — for a place with a clogged pipeline, 300 extra practical tests in one day is meaningful. It will not erase a backlog of roughly 5,000 people by itself, but it can shave off part of the queue and, just as important, keep the list from growing even faster. Think of it less as a full fix and more as emergency pressure relief. (segre.com) ### Why is this urgent before summer? Because licences are seasonal in a very ordinary way. People want them for summer jobs, travel, and general mobility, and auto schools tend to face heavy demand as the weather improves and students try to finish before holidays. If the practical exam stage jams up in May, the delay spills straight into the months when people most want the licence in hand. That is the real stakes piece here, even if the official move is just one Saturday session. (segre.com) ### What’s the catch? A one-day push helps, but the structural problem is staffing. If examiner shortages continue, Lleida could burn through this extra capacity and drift back into the same queue pattern. The Saturday session shows the DGT recognizes the bottleneck. It does not yet prove the bottleneck is solved. (segre.com) ### Bottom line? Lleida is getting a burst of extra driving tests because the regular system fell behind. More than 300 practical exams in one Saturday is a real intervention — but basically a stopgap until examiner capacity becomes steadier. (segre.com) (segre.com)