Frequently asked questions

Almost nothing at first: your ID card and bank details are enough. We set you up in our system, create the training contract – and you can start theory lessons right away.

Theory lessons run every day from Monday to Friday at all our branches – so you can complete all 14 lessons in a short time. The fastest way is our 10-day intensive course: we organise your entire Class B training in 10 working days. In regular training, you and your instructor set the pace of your driving lessons. Allow some lead time for the road traffic office and TÜV – the authorities are currently very busy.

For car and motorcycle classes: certificate of the first-aid course (9 teaching units), a biometric passport photo, an eye test, a valid ID card or passport and the application fee. For accompanied driving (B17), the accompanying persons' documents are added. We take care of handing in your documents at the authority – you don't need them yet to register with us.

Unfortunately there's no one-size-fits-all answer. Fixed items include the registration fee, learning materials, the theory exam, the 12 special drives and the practical exam. Only the number of practice lessons depends heavily on prior experience and talent – we're happy to advise you free of charge and with no obligation.

Once the road traffic office has processed your application, you have one year to take your theory exam.

The first-aid course with 9 teaching units is compulsory before your driving licence application is submitted to the road traffic office. You have to complete it at an officially recognised provider – we don't offer the courses ourselves, but we're happy to advise you on when best to schedule it and which documents you'll need afterwards.

Yes – car, motorcycle, truck and bus, including extensions such as B196 and BE, as well as the complete professional driver training and further training at our training centre.

That depends on whether you already have a driving licence. Without a licence, for class B you need 12 basic lessons and 2 class-specific lessons. It's important that you've attended each of the two class-specific topics once. For the basic lessons, we recommend attending every topic once – but it's no problem if you attend a topic a second time.

At all our branches – Essen, Gelsenkirchen (city centre), Gelsenkirchen-Erle, Herne, Wanne and Bochum – from 18:00 to 19:30. You can see which lesson takes place when in our theory schedule.

That's what our app “FahrenLernen Max” is for. There you can see at a glance how many lessons you've attended.

Usually it's pretty quick: about 1–2 weeks. The more flexible you are about the time and exam location, the sooner you get a date. The times are set by TÜV; they're always between 8:00 and 16:00.

Of course! With that much commitment, we won't stand in your way.

Your theory lessons shouldn't be older than two years – otherwise we can no longer guarantee that your knowledge is still up to date.

Unfortunately there's no one-size-fits-all answer, because it depends heavily on your ability to drive a car. People learn at different speeds, and that's reflected in the number of practice lessons. The special drives are much easier to plan: in total you need 12: 5 rural road drives, 4 motorway drives and 3 night drives. You only start the special drives once you've completed the entire basic training.

That depends on how motivated you are and how much time you have. In regular training you plan your driving lessons together with your instructor – many people need a few months for this. In the 10-day intensive course your entire training is organised within 10 working days – more on our intensive courses page.

Before you start your driving lessons, you come into the office once more. There you're assigned a driving instructor. If you know someone from the lessons and really want to drive with them, that's of course possible too – although there may then be short waiting times.

First of all: that's no problem at all! We have a large number of driving instructors, so we can switch even during your training. However, it's easier for everyone to talk about it openly and find another solution together before switching.

There are two options: either you arrange the appointments directly with your driving instructor, or you use a shared digital calendar – where you can see exactly which slots your driving instructor has free.