How do you open a driving school in Romania?
Opening a driving school in Romania is a licensing procedure, not just a company registration. The Romanian Road Authority (ARR) checks the premises, the vehicles and the staff before issuing the authorisation.
Short answer
- 1. You set up a company (usually an SRL) with “driving schools” as its business activity — NACE code 8553.
- 2. You prepare the facilities: an equipped theory classroom, dual-control vehicles for the requested categories, and a practice range if you want motorcycle categories (AM, A1, A2, A).
- 3. You hire certified staff on employment contracts: at least one road-legislation teacher and ARR-certified driving instructors.
- 4. You file the authorisation dossier with the local ARR agency; the authorisation is issued per training category, under OMT 733/2013.
- 5. After authorisation, you maintain the yearly visa: ARR conditions it on a minimum first-attempt exam pass rate for your students.
What the law says about setting up a driving school
- OG 27/2011 on road transport sets the framework: the Ministry of Transport, through ARR, authorises driving schools and driving instructors.
- OMT 733/2013, Annex 1, contains the norms on authorising driving schools and instructors: who can be authorised, with what equipment and what staff.
- The order’s annexes detail the minimum theory-room equipment, the conditions for school vehicles and the requirements for the practice range.
- Driving instructors and legislation teachers must be hired on employment contracts — informal collaborations are not accepted at authorisation.
A concrete example: the path of a new driving school
- A new company aims for category B authorisation: it rents a theory room and equips it per the OMT 733/2013 annexes.
- It buys or leases two cars fitted with dual controls and prepares them for technical inspection.
- It hires one road-legislation teacher and two driving instructors with valid ARR certificates.
- It files the dossier with the county ARR agency, pays the authorisation fee and receives the category B authorisation.
- From day one it organises student, lesson and exam records — the yearly visa depends on them.
Common mistakes
- An incomplete ARR dossier: missing documents for the premises or vehicles delay the authorisation by weeks.
- Ignoring the pass rate: the yearly visa depends on first-attempt pass rates, so training quality is an operating condition, not just marketing.
- Starting without a record system: paper-based scheduling, completed hours and student files become impossible to reconstruct at an inspection.
How 4driving helps you
From day one, 4driving gives you the records ARR assumes you have: lesson scheduling per instructor and car, hour packages with an automatically tracked balance per student, and a complete file for every learner.
The fleet is tracked with technical-inspection and insurance alerts, and instructors are managed per licence category — so you can prove at any time that the school operates within its authorisation.