Driving license class 3: 2000 marks and now you were allowed to drive “everything”

The boomers just had better – this sentence is not always true, but always when it comes to driving license. Today, a car driver’s license costs between 2100 and 4400 euros, according to the ADAC. That used to be significantly cheaper. The author spent around 2000 German marks (DM) in 1980, and it was already “failed” in the practical test, including school friends with DM 1200. The driver’s license was not only much cheaper, it was far more powerful. Today there is only class B. for a higher course, you can drive a car with it – the permissible total mass of the vehicle must not exceed 3500 kilograms. This is sufficient for a car, with delivery vans or heavy pickups and off -road vehicles it can be tight. A trailer up to 750 kilograms can be hanged behind the car if the vehicle and trailer do not exceed the weight of 4250 kilograms. However, the trailer may be heavier if the total weight reaches a maximum of 3500 kilograms. The permissible total weight is always meant. So the empty weight plus the maximum permitted payload and not the actual weight.

What does that mean for a trailer? You can pull a “cart”, as you can borrow it from the hardware store. A caravan no longer actually, unless you choose a very small lightweight. Class B is not enough for a normally grown caravan, a horse trailer, a sales stand and the like.

Compared to these lean permissions from today, the old class 3 acts like the premier class of the road traffic regulations. Until 1999 she was the standard license – so it was not only included with the boomers, but also the generation X. Car up to 3.5 tons, but that is only the beginning. Because with class 3, vehicles up to 7500 kilograms of permitted total weight may be moved. This includes every heavy duty pick-up-but also heavy panel vans and “light” trucks. Only the very big brummer were taboo. Today this authorization corresponds to class C1. If the bill was acquired before April 1, 1980, you could even drive a motorcycle up to 125 cubic centimeters displacement and a maximum output of 15 hp or 11 kW. Today one would have to acquire class A1 separately.

Class 3 was particularly generous for followers: the team of towing vehicle and trailer was allowed to weigh up to 18.75 tons. However, a regular health check is prescribed today if this weight is to exceed 12 tons and the owner is over 50 years old. This is usually only done by truck drivers, most of the class 3 owners leave it at 12 tons. The equivalent today would be the truck class C1 (up to 7.5 tons) with the trailer supplement E-i.e. C1E-then the team can also weigh 12 tons.

Together all, the old threesome corresponds to today’s classes B, A1 and C1 or C1E. The cost comparison only leads to B. In the case of driving license costs, your own skills play a major role, accordingly the prices vary. For the small motorcycle driver’s license A1 you should calculate 1000 to 3000 euros. The truck becomes more expensive. The combination of C1 and E costs around 4000 euros.

If you take the mean values, you face these costs: 3250 (b), 2000 (A1) plus 4000 (C1E); In total 9250 euros. Even if you simply convert the 2000 DM mentioned above – at that time in the upper area – to “one -to -one” into euros, the price has risen approximately 4.5 times. Car driving has become significantly more expensive for the boys.

Are these pure “bureaucracy costs” or costs that arise for meaningful training? The extreme example of the old threesome would be: freshly made your driver’s license on a golf and then on a big tour with an 18-ton team-with country roads and mountain passages. That was allowed and it would have been the recipe for a safe accident. It is unlikely that someone dared to do this. Practice and slowly approach it was the standard. But not mandatory. In the past, the state also relied on the insight and personal responsibility of the citizens, more on binding regulations today. The situation is similar with the justification for heavy trailers and light motorcycles. A practical training did not take place in the driving school at the time. So you can hardly say that the boomer would have dominated with its three -fold, truck and motorcycle.

Has this more of expensive training in accident statistics been put down? It is difficult to say. Apart from the special case of the German reunification, the number of traffic fatalities has decreased continuously since 1970, from over 19,000 deaths in the FRG to around 2400 in 2023, including at the time of the three. With simultaneous increase in vehicles and kilometers covered.

A large number of factors are responsible for the decline. This includes changed alcohol values, wiser road tours, effective medical care and much more built-in security for car inmates. In this bundle, the stricter allocation of the driver’s license can also line up. However, a special effect cannot be seen in the statistics. Nobody can expect that either, since the closely set new classes only affected the new driver’s license. In the years after the changeover, the oversized majority of the drivers still benefited from the comprehensive permits of class 3.

To this day, and that’s bitter for the new ones. Boomers like the author can still move trucks of up to 7.5 tons – with trailers even 12 tons. Only for the small motorcycle driving license did he get a little late.