LTO eyes standard driving school rates

MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Office is working on regulations to standardize prices being charged by driving schools, LTO chief Jay Art Tugade said on Friday.

Tugade was reacting to concerns raised by lawmakers over exorbitant rates charged by driving schools for driving courses required to get a driver’s license.

Tugade said that as early as December 2022, he convened the committee and technical working group on driving schools and education to work out a “reasonable” base fee structure to regulate the charges of driving schools by March and to check the legality of such a move.

Driving schools charge between P600 and P1,500 for theoretical driving courses.

Practical driving courses range in price from P3,000 to P6,000 in the provinces and around P10,000 in Metro Manila.

The prices do not include additional fees such as for certificates.

Tugade said the LTO is consulting with the country’s largest driving school associations on why the fees have gone up.

The LTO is currently letting the market dictate the prices of driving courses, at least until it can come up with new guidelines on the rates.

“The ideal is to compete, with better rates. This is not happening. This is why we saw to reviewing the guidelines,” he said.

The theoretical and practical driving courses are required for new applicants for driver’s licenses, even for students and non-professionals, under Republic Act 1030 that extended the validity of driver’s licenses to 10 years.