Bus drivers have seven years (from September 2008 to September 2015) to complete the first 35 hours of continuing education. After that, drivers must renew their proficiency every five years , always by taking 35 hours of continuing education.
Anyone who attained professional competence as of September 2008 falls directly within the five-year continuing education cycle. Thus, new drivers are not subject to the one-time longer seven-year term, which does apply to currently employed drivers.
Alblas advises drivers to take a portion of continuing education annually and not schedule all continuing education at the last minute. If everyone waits until the last minute, there could be a capacity shortage in training, preventing drivers from renewing their licenses in time.
Each driver, in consultation with the employer, can create his own program, which is as close as possible to daily professional practice. So there is no one set program that is the same for everyone. The only requirement is that of the 35 hours of continuing education, a driver must complete at least one day (7 hours) of practical training.
If for some reason a driver fails to comply with the mandatory refresher training, the consequence is that he/she is no longer allowed to practice his/her profession. Professional competence has expired, so to speak. If the driver subsequently decides to pick up his/her old profession after all, he/she must renew the proficiency again. Drivers do this by completing 35 hours of continuing education. Only after 35 hours of continuing education is he/she allowed to drive professionally again. Thus, he/she does not have to take another exam.
If a driver holds both a driver’s certificate for passenger transport and professional freight transport, he or she only needs to take35 hours of refresher trainingonce every 5 years, not 70 hours.
Some groups of drivers have exemptions from the driver’s certificate.
Firefighters, police officers, drivers born before July 1, 1955 and the like are covered by the exemption.
There are other exemptions. A complete listing of exemptions:
Exemption in the new situation
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Continuous period of twenty weeks under the National Institute for Vocational Education Transport and Logistics Foundation
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Driving under the supervision of an authorized supervisor, provided the student has enrolled at an institution that provides training aimed at passing an examination to obtain a recognized certificate of professional competence
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Driver who can demonstrate that he is undergoing training of at least six months in the Netherlands to obtain a certificate of professional competence, on Dutch territory for a maximum of three years shall be exempt from the obligation to hold a certificate of professional competence.
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Driver of a motor vehicle used exclusively for the transportation of farms from the place of cultivation to the auction as well as packaging materials used for that purpose from the auction to the place of cultivation (driver min 21 years of age and radius of max 50 km around the place of employment).
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Vehicles for collecting milk at the farms and returning milk cans or dairy products for animal feed to the farms (driver min 21 years old and radius of max 50 km around the duty station).
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Driver of a motor vehicle used by an entrepreneur in a retail business exclusively for the ambulatory exercise of that retail business (driver min 21 years of age and radius of max 50 km around the place of business).
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Driver of a motor vehicle exclusively equipped and exclusively used as a travelling library, travelling office, travelling instruction room, travelling canteen, travelling medical service, travelling savings bank, travelling dental service, travelling exhibition room (driver min 21 years of age and radius of max 50 km around the place of employment).
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Driver of a motor vehicle used to transport circus or fairground equipment.
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Driver of a motor vehicle if he drives it exclusively for carrying out and checking repairs to or for demonstrating that vehicle, provided that no other persons or goods are transported with that vehicle than are needed for carrying out and checking a repair or for a demonstration (driver min 21 years of age and radius of max 50 km around the place of employment).
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Driver of goods transport vehicles used by agricultural, horticultural, forestry, or fishery enterprises for journeys within a radius of 50 km from the vehicle’s usual place of employment, including the territory of municipalities whose nucleus is located within this radius.
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Driver of vehicles used to transport live animals from farms to local markets and vice versa, or from markets to local slaughterhouses.
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Driver of vehicles for use as stores in local markets, for home sales, for itinerant work of banks, exchange offices or savings banks, for worship, for lending books, records or cassettes, for cultural events or for exhibitions and specially equipped for such use.
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Driver who performs less than 12 hours of transportation in a one-week period.
- Driver of a bus/truck born before July 1, 1955
