Driving license always becomes expensive – the rag costs that much

Last year it became much more expensive in Germany to get a driver’s license. The prices and fees for the services of the driving schools and exams were around 5.8 percent higher than a year earlier in 2024, as the Federal Statistical Office reported. The amounts were again above the general increase in consumer prices, which are only 2.2 percent climbed. The statisticians did not give any specific prices.

The statisticians have also noticed this trend of excessively increasing driving license prices in previous years. The difference in Corona year 2021 was particularly great, as prices and fees related to the driver’s license were 9.6 percent, while consumer prices only increased by 3.1 percent. In the high inflation year 2022, the service providers even hit the driver’s license with 10.8 percent price increase compared to 6.9 percent inflation. That was the highest increase since statistics began in 1991.

The bottom line was that the driver’s license was a good 38 percent more expensive than in 2020. The statistics office did not construct a “ideal driver’s license” for the calculation, but only raised the prices freely raised by the driving schools, for example for driving lessons and theoretical lessons as well as the test fees at TÜV or DEKRA. These are stipulated by law and only make up a good 12 percent in the overall view.

“Driving schools can determine the prices for their services such as theoretical lessons or driving lessons themselves and have to make them transparent,” explained the statisticians. “There is no flat rate or legal requirements for pricing.”

In contrast, fees for the theoretical and practical driver’s license test at TÜV or DEKRA are legally defined. According to the ADAC AutoClub, costs for a car driving license of more than 3500 euros are no longer uncommon. As reasons for this, increased vehicle, fuel and, above all, personnel costs are mentioned.