Interrupted driving course: does it expire, and how can you return after a break?

Current rules contain no general provision under which a modern, properly completed category B driving course automatically expires after one, two or five years.

Distinguish two situations:

• a completed course — all required training elements have been completed and training has ended,
• an interrupted course — some training has been completed, but the course is unfinished.

For a completed course, the passage of time alone does not automatically require you to repeat all the training.

For an interrupted course, you can resume training, but the surviving records confirming completed lessons matter.

When a learner stops training, the school manager draws a line under the last entry on the lesson record card and signs it, closing the card.

You keep your lesson record card.

If records were electronic, you receive an electronically signed card file and a signed printout noting that the card was maintained electronically.

The school retains a copy of the card or its electronic equivalent in its records.

In its learner register, the school records the number of hours completed there, the date training was interrupted and the lead instructor’s registration number.

When training is interrupted, the school must also take the steps that allow the next training provider to download your Driver Candidate Profile. If the new school still cannot download it, see what to do if the school does not release the PKK.

Collect and keep your own lesson record card when stopping a course: it is the simplest evidence of what you have already completed.

Not simply because of the break.

The rules provide for continuing at another provider and transferring records of previous training.

If you move to another school, give it your lesson record card; for electronic records, provide the file and the original printout.

The new school continues training taking properly documented previous lessons into account.

However, this does not mean a simple equation:

30 hours − hours previously completed = exactly how many hours remain

Category B practical training involves at least 30 hours. The lead instructor determines the hours individually in consultation with the learner, subject to that minimum.

For example, completing 18 properly documented hours before the break does not automatically mean starting another 30 hours from scratch. After a long break, however, further training may exceed the 12 hours needed to reach the minimum.

This is one of the most commonly misunderstood rules.

24 months is not a course expiry period.

The training regulation specifies how long schools retain lesson record cards and copies for people who do not continue training: 24 months from the last entry. After that period, the cards and copies held by the school must be destroyed.

Before a card is destroyed, the number of theory or practical hours completed must be entered in the learner register.

After that period, the school must also take the steps that allow the next provider to download the PKK of a person who is not continuing training.

The card you received and kept when stopping training remains with you. The 24-month period applies to records held by the school, not the card in your possession.

After 24 months, the school’s record retention arrangements change, not the validity of the training itself.

The learner register is kept for 10 years from the date of its last entry.

This period applies to the register as a document and runs from its last entry, not from the entry for a particular learner. Do not assume every person’s data is kept for exactly 10 years.

When training ends or is interrupted, the school enters the hours completed there, the completion or interruption date and the lead instructor’s registration number.

Before a card or copy is destroyed after 24 months, the completed hours are entered in the learner register.

There is no general rule setting a two-year validity period for a PKK.

The rules on interrupted training records provide for the opposite of deletion: the profile is to be made available to the next provider when training is interrupted, and also after 24 months for people who do not continue.

The rules do not set a general deadline after which a PKK automatically expires simply because time has passed.

After a long break, however, check the profile data, especially the medical certificate. Our Driver Candidate Profile (PKK) guide explains how it works and where to find its number.

No.

The 24 months concern record retention, not the right to stop training and continue at another school.

When you stop, the old school must make it possible for another provider to download your PKK. Give the new school your previous training records.

Our guide to changing driving schools during a course covers the whole procedure, from collecting your card to settling payments with the old provider.

The current regulation on issuing documents confirming driving entitlements provides a solution.

If a school has locked your PKK, you can submit a reasoned request to the driving licence issuing authority to release the profile. The authority releases it and informs both you and the school.

In practice, the issuing authority is the district head (starosta), through the transport department, or the city president in a city with district status.

You are therefore not entirely dependent on the old school taking action. Explain in your request when training was interrupted and why the profile remains locked.

You can prepare the request to the office with the letter templates below. Before you file it, it is worth first writing to the driving school itself — that template is there too.

A school closing does not automatically mean all its records disappear.

The rules require the learner register to be handed to the competent supervisory authority for archiving immediately after the operator stops running the school, or after an administrative decision or court ruling prohibits it from doing so.

If your old school no longer operates, contact the district head (or city president in a city with district status) responsible for the area where it operated.

If your PKK also remains locked, you can use the procedure for release by the licence issuing authority.

There is no such automatic rule.

Category B practical training requires at least 30 hours. Properly documented previous lessons are taken into account when training resumes.

At the same time, 30 hours is a minimum, and further training is determined individually.

Distinguish between:

• recognition of previous hours that are properly documented,
• the hours you actually need now to finish training and prepare for the test.

Our guide to how long a category B course takes explains the minimum hours and what affects training duration.

A long break alone does not automatically require a new medical examination.

Check whether your existing certificate can still be used for the category you are applying for.

The PKK contains the certificate number and issue date, the next examination deadline, any restrictions and the categories it covers.

The issuing authority does not require a new certificate if the one already on file remains valid for the category concerned.

There is no single number of years after which a candidate’s certificate “expires”: the individual certificate determines this. If the doctor set a next examination deadline and it has passed, you will need a new certificate.

If training was properly completed, time alone creates no general requirement to repeat a whole modern course.

For courses run through the PKK system, the school updates the profile on completion with training data, including start and end dates and theory and practical hours. Completed training is then visible in the profile.

For older courses, the next steps depend on surviving records and transitional provisions: see the next section.

The Act on Drivers contains transitional provisions for older training.

Article 134(2) states that a training completion certificate issued under the previous Road Traffic Act remains valid within the scope for which it was issued.

A person submitting such a certificate with a driving licence application receives a PKK, and the authority adds the completed training data.

Info-Car (PWPW) explains that courses completed after 1 July 1998 remain valid.

If you completed training before 1 July 1998, check your individual situation with the transport department using the records you still have. Info-Car/PWPW notes that such historical cases may require a full course again, but earlier transitional provisions apply and modern course rules should not automatically be applied to them.

A successful state theory test result currently has no expiry date.

The Act only requires you to pass theory before taking the practical test. Current rules do not require a retake simply because several years have passed between theory and practice.

Previously, a theory pass was valid for 6 months. That limit was removed by an amendment to the Act on Drivers effective from 24 August 2014. If you passed theory before that date, check its status in your PKK or with WORD.

Yes, if the school still operates and agrees to continue your training.

This is not a statutory entitlement enforceable against a particular school, but a practical possibility based on continuing your relationship with it.

Before returning, establish the status of your records, PKK and completed lessons, especially if more than 24 months have passed since your last drive and the school may have destroyed its card and released the profile.

Yes.

The training regulation (§ 15) expressly provides for a learner to continue with another provider and give its manager the lesson record card.

Our guide to changing driving schools during a course explains what to collect from the old school, how PKK release works and what to ask the new provider.

Stopping the course does not automatically mean forfeiting the entire fee.

The mandate-contract rules apply accordingly to service contracts not governed by other provisions (Article 750 of the Civil Code). Under Article 746 § 1, the client may terminate at any time.

The settlement may include:

• payment corresponding to the service already provided,
• justified expenses incurred by the school,
• and, for termination without a valid reason, compensation for damage.

It is not simply course price / 30 hours: the fee may also cover theory, first aid, materials or organisational classes.

Read more about settling with the old school in our guide to changing schools and settling course payments.