The Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Wednesday said fees charged against student drivers are excessively high and plans on imposing caps starting April 15.
LTO Chief Jay Art Tugade said the new prescribed rates for theoretical driving courses (TDCs) and practical driving courses (PDCs) will be included in the Omnibus Guidelines on the Accreditation, Supervision, and Control of Driving Institutions, and the Standardization of Driver and Conductor’s Education that will be issued. The omnibus guidelines will include directives on the standardization of drivers’ and conductors’ education.
Under the new guidelines, the allowed maximum rate for TDCs will be P1,000 while the maximum fee for PDCs varies depending on the license code — P2,500 for driver’s license codes A and A1, and P4,000 for license codes B, B1, and B2.
Aside from the prescribed maximum rates, accredited driving institutions will be required to hold the mandatory 15-hour TDCs in two days, with the first seven hours on the first day and the remaining eight hours on the second day.
Meanwhile, the practical driving instructions shall not be less than 8 hours per driver’s license code applied for.
“PDC for light and heavy vehicles shall be conducted for at least TWO days while 8-hour PDC for motorcycles may be conducted in one day, provided that the student-driver has proven to have already acquired the knowledge based on the assessment by a practical driving instructor,” the memorandum circular stated.
Driving institutions must also enroll client details to the LTO System using the Land Transportation Management System (LTMS) Client ID to determine the starting date of the TDC amid the issue of “non-appearance” by some applicants.
“Registration of his/her biometrics before and after every session for attendance purposes is required. The Driving Institution shall provide and maintain an attendance sheet to record the actual presence of the applicant during the conduct of the face-to-face TDC and written examination or validation,” it added.
After course completion and passing the final exam for TDC and at least 8-hour PDC, the Certificate of Course Completion will be issued to the applicant and shall be electronically transmitted in real-time to the LTMS through the Driving Institution Portal.
“Since last year, the agency’s technical working group held a series of meetings and consultations with the different driving schools’ associations and stakeholders which led to the prescribed maximum rates that we are going to implement,” Tugade said.
“The rates were computed to make sure that driving institutions still get a fair return of investment and at the same time make it affordable to the public,” he added.
