Initial qualification & periodic training
Code 95 explained
Your licence says what you may drive. The professional driver qualification says you may earn money doing it. Here is who needs it, which three routes lead to it and how the periodic training works every five years.
Who needs the driver qualification?
The German Professional Drivers Qualification Act (Berufskraftfahrerqualifikationsgesetz) applies to drivers who carry goods or passengers on public roads with vehicles that require a licence of class C1, C1E, C, CE, D1, D1E, D or DE. For journeys that are not such carriage, the Act applies only where a provision says so expressly.
- Goods transport: carriage with vehicles that require C1, C1E, C or CE.
- Passenger transport: carriage with vehicles that require D1, D1E, D or DE.
- It covers German nationals, nationals of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland – and third-country nationals employed or deployed by a company established in the EU, the EEA or Switzerland.
- Which licence class your vehicle calls for, and from what age it is issued, is on the truck and the bus page.
Exemptions
The Act expressly exempts a whole range of journeys. They include:
- Vehicles whose maximum design speed does not exceed 45 kilometres per hour.
- Vehicles of the German armed forces (Bundeswehr), of the federal and state police forces, of the customs service (Zolldienst), of civil defence and disaster control and of the fire brigade – including vehicles under their instructions – where the journey is part of the tasks assigned to those services.
- Vehicles used for emergency rescue by the rescue services recognised under state law.
- Vehicles undergoing tests for technical development, for repair or maintenance purposes or for technical inspection – and new or rebuilt vehicles not yet put into service.
- Vehicles in which you carry materials, equipment or machinery you use in the course of your own occupation – provided driving is not your main activity.
- Driving-school training vehicles, and vehicles used to obtain a driving licence, to obtain an initial qualification or during periodic training.
- Vehicles used for the non-commercial carriage of goods or passengers – private journeys, in other words.
- Vehicles of agricultural, horticultural, forestry or fisheries businesses carrying goods as part of their own business activity within a radius of up to 100 kilometres from the company base.
What counts is always the wording of section 1(2) of the Act. Whether your work falls under it is something we go through together – guessing is the expensive option here.
Three routes to the qualification
The law knows the initial qualification and the accelerated initial qualification. The initial qualification in turn is acquired either through the exam at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) or through an apprenticeship. That makes three routes. For none of them do you have to hold the licence beforehand.
Accelerated initial qualification
- 140 hours of instruction, 60 minutes each
- At least ten of those hours behind the wheel yourself
- Theory exam at the IHK: 90 minutes in writing
- No licence required beforehand
The route most people take. You attend the instruction at a recognised training centre (anerkannte Ausbildungsstätte) and then sit the written exam at the IHK responsible for where you live; it contains at least one question on each of the relevant objectives in the regulation. Up to four of the driving hours may be spent on driver training on a dedicated area or in a high-performance simulator.
Initial qualification
- No prescribed instruction
- Theory exam at the IHK: 240 minutes
- Plus a 90-minute driving test and a 30-minute practical part
- No licence required beforehand
The full-size version: the regulation prescribes no instruction here, but the exam is considerably larger. The theory part consists in equal measure of multiple-choice questions, questions with a direct answer and a discussion of practical situations. The practical part adds tasks on load securing or passenger safety, on preventing crime, on health and on acting correctly in emergencies to the driving test. You provide the test vehicle and a driving instructor for the practical exam yourself – we help with that.
Apprenticeship
- Professional driver (Berufskraftfahrer/-in) or transport services specialist (Fachkraft im Fahrbetrieb)
- Three-year dual apprenticeship
- A comparable recognised training occupation counts too
Completing an apprenticeship as a professional driver or as a transport services specialist means you have acquired the initial qualification – as does any other state-recognised training occupation that teaches comparable skills and knowledge for driving on public roads. Both apprenticeships run for three years. During the apprenticeship a copy of the training contract takes the place of the qualification record. The training itself happens in a company and at a vocational school, not with us – we handle the licence and the periodic training afterwards.
Our accelerated initial qualification
The instruction comprises 140 teaching units of 60 minutes each and covers the knowledge areas of Annex 1 to the implementing regulation (Berufskraftfahrerqualifikationsverordnung). The regulation groups them into three areas; we bundle them with the driving hours into four blocks. Only a recognised training centre may offer this instruction, and no more than 25 people sit in one course.
Rational driving based on safety rules
Knowledge area 1: the kinematic chain with torque, power and fuel-consumption curves, safety equipment from ABS and ESP to advanced emergency braking, saving fuel – and anticipating road risks, assessing them and adapting to them. The truck classes add load securing, the bus classes passenger safety and passenger comfort.
Applying the regulations
Knowledge area 2: the social rules framing road transport, maximum working times, driving and rest periods under EU Regulations 561/2006 and 165/2014, and the tachograph – including what follows if it is not used, misused or tampered with. Plus the rules of your own field: transport documents, CMR and permits in goods transport, safety equipment and particular groups of passengers in passenger transport.
Health, road and environmental safety, service, logistics
Knowledge area 3 – a single large area in the regulation: road risks and accidents at work, preventing crime and the trafficking of illegal immigrants, avoiding damage to health, physical and mental fitness, assessing emergency situations correctly, the economic environment of your sector and conduct that gives the company a good image.
Behind the wheel
For at least ten teaching units you drive a vehicle of the relevant class yourself, supervised by someone holding a valid driving instructor licence. Up to four of them may be spent on driver training on a dedicated area or in a high-performance simulator. If you do not hold the licence yet, the supervising person counts as the driver of the vehicle on those journeys.
Two variants
- Goods transport
- Passenger transport
The qualification is acquired for particular licence classes. If you later extend your work from goods to passenger transport or the other way round and already hold an initial qualification, the instruction for the second accelerated initial qualification shrinks to 35 teaching units – and the exam to the knowledge areas covering the new vehicles.
Course dates on request – the length depends on the programme, and we will talk you through it.
Periodic training: 5 modules, 35 hours
Periodic training refreshes and deepens all knowledge areas of Annex 1; at least one sub-area from each of areas 1, 2 and 3 must be covered. What is prescribed is 35 teaching units in self-contained training units of at least seven units each – which is where our five modules come from. The titles below are our split, not the law’s: in terms of content the regulation only requires that at least one training unit covers a sub-area concerning road safety. It prescribes no order, you may even take the units at different training centres, and one unit may be split across two consecutive days.
Eco training: rational driving
From knowledge area 1: engine and consumption curves, anticipating the traffic ahead, steady speed, correct tyre pressure. Saves the company diesel and you nerves.
Social rules: driving and rest periods
From knowledge area 2: maximum working times, the EU regulations on driving and rest periods, operating the tachograph correctly – and what follows if it is not used, misused or tampered with.
Safety technology & driving safety
The module that covers the prescribed sub-area on road safety: service and endurance braking systems, assistance systems, spotting hazardous situations and handling the stress inside them. Part of it may run as driver training on a dedicated area or in a simulator.
The driver as a hub: service & image
From knowledge area 3: how you come across to customers and passengers, the economic environment of your sector, health and safety at work, and assessing emergency situations correctly.
Load securing or passenger safety
Depending on your class: the forces acting on vehicle and load while driving, load distribution and lashing technique in goods transport – or passenger safety, passenger comfort and carrying children and people with disabilities in passenger transport.
Deadline: every 5 years
You complete the first periodic training five years after acquiring the initial or the accelerated initial qualification, and every further one at intervals of five years. The date may also be moved to the end of your licence’s validity, as long as the resulting period is no shorter than three and no longer than seven years. If you move to another company, periodic training you have already completed is credited.
Driver qualification card
The authority responsible under state law issues the record of your initial qualification, accelerated initial qualification and completed periodic training on application, as a driver qualification card (Fahrerqualifizierungsnachweis). A record issued by another EU state, the EEA or Switzerland is treated as equivalent, and so is a code 95 entered in a licence there; an entry made earlier in a German licence remains valid until it expires. You must carry the record on every journey and hand it over to enforcement officers on request.
Deadline passed?
Then your initial qualification is not lost – but the record of periodic training takes the place of the record you need for those journeys. Without it you may not carry goods or passengers commercially, and the company may neither order nor permit such journeys; both are regulatory offences. You can catch up at any time: anyone who was temporarily no longer employed as a driver has to complete the periodic training as soon as they take that work up again and the deadline has passed by then. The law grants no grace period – but it does not ask you to repeat the initial qualification either.
For companies
We train your drivers – as a group from one company or individually in our courses in Essen-Steele. The law puts the company under an obligation too: it may neither order nor permit journeys for which the qualification is missing.
- Groups from one company: we schedule the training units so that operations keep running – a unit may also be split across two consecutive days.
- Initial qualification and periodic training from a single source, for goods as well as passenger transport.
- Funding for employees is possible. We draw up the offer so that you can submit it to the funding body.
- If someone joins you from another company, periodic training they have already completed is credited – new drivers do not start from scratch.
AZAV-certified training providerUp to 100 % fundable
As an AZAV-certified training provider we bill your training directly to the funding body – for example against an education voucher (Bildungsgutschein).
- Federal Employment Agency (Agentur für Arbeit)
- Jobcenter
- German Pension Insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung)
- Statutory Accident Insurance (Berufsgenossenschaft)
- Armed Forces Career Service (Berufsförderungsdienst)
- Your employer (training for employees)
Frequently asked questions about the driver qualification
What is code 95, exactly?
It is the shorthand for the professional driver qualification. In Germany the authority responsible under state law issues, on application, a driver qualification card (Fahrerqualifizierungsnachweis) covering the initial qualification, the accelerated initial qualification and completed periodic training. A record from another EU state, the EEA or Switzerland is treated as equivalent, and so is the EU harmonised code 95 entered in a licence there. An entry made earlier in a German licence remains valid until it expires. You have to carry the record on every journey.
Do I need the qualification for private driving too?
No. The Act expressly exempts vehicles used for the non-commercial carriage of goods or passengers – so moving house in a hired truck is a question of licence class, not of code 95. Also exempt is carrying materials, equipment or machinery you use in your own occupation, as long as driving the vehicle is not your main activity. Which class your vehicle calls for is on the truck and the bus page.
Initial qualification or accelerated initial qualification?
The accelerated one calls for 140 teaching units of 60 minutes each and then a written IHK exam of 90 minutes. The initial qualification prescribes no instruction, but a theory exam of 240 minutes and a practical exam of a 90-minute driving test plus a 30-minute practical part. Which of the two you hold affects the age thresholds from which you may drive and from which the classes are issued to you – those thresholds are on the truck and the bus page. In the consultation we work out which is the faster route in your case.
Can I do the licence and the driver qualification together?
Yes. For access to the initial qualification as well as the accelerated initial qualification, holding the relevant licence beforehand is expressly not required. Anyone driving a vehicle on public roads during it without the prescribed licence must be accompanied by a person holding a driving instructor licence; on those journeys the accompanying person counts as the driver of the vehicle. We plan both together so that no waiting time opens up between the licence and your first job.
My five years have run out – what now?
The initial qualification stays with you. Until the periodic training is caught up, though, you are missing the record you need for carrying goods or passengers: you may not make those journeys, and your company may neither order nor permit them. Anyone who was not employed as a driver at all for a while has to complete the periodic training as soon as they take that work up again and the deadline has passed by then. There is no grace period, but no repeat of the initial qualification either – get in touch and we will put you into the next modules.
Can my employer or a funding body pay for it?
Up to 100 % is possible – for example with an education voucher (Bildungsgutschein) from the Federal Employment Agency (Agentur für Arbeit) – since 2025 also if a Jobcenter looks after you – through German Pension Insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung), the Statutory Accident Insurance (Berufsgenossenschaft) or your employer. We are AZAV-certified and bill the funding body directly. For companies there is also the funding for training employees. As a rule there is no legal entitlement to funding: whether and to what extent it is granted is decided by the funding body after a consultation. The law does know exceptions – catching up on a vocational qualification, for one. The funding page has the detail.
Which language is the IHK exam held in?
The exam for the accelerated initial qualification is to be taken in German as a rule. The regulation expressly allows nine further languages alongside it: Albanian, English, Modern Standard Arabic, Croatian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish and Ukrainian. Whether the IHK responsible for you offers a date in the language you want is something we clarify with them before you register – just ask us.
Free consultation
Message us on WhatsApp or give us a call – we answer your questions and prepare the quote your funding body needs.
“Hello, I am interested in the professional driver qualification (initial qualification / periodic training).”
Message us on WhatsAppAs a rule there is no legal entitlement to funding – whether and to what extent it is granted is decided by the funding body after a consultation.