Driving school software: course sign-up, lessons, payments, test dates
The pupil does not know how many hours are left. The instructor keeps the rota in their head. The office chases instalments. Driving-school software ties theory, yard hours and the test — instead of three spreadsheets and a Facebook group.
A driving school lives on pupil flow, not a one-off ad. Before the first lesson there is a candidate profile (PKK), a medical check, theory, a minimum of practical hours, an internal exam and a booking for the state test centre (WORD). For category B the common volume is 30 hours of theory and 30 hours of practice — the exact split is the school’s programme under the training ordinance, not a Facebook handshake. If any stage lives in a notebook, the pupil “vanishes” or blames the school because nobody knew how many hours were left.
A driving school (OSK) is a regulated activity (Polish driving-licence law, art. 28): a register entry, an instructor with rights and practice, a classroom, an office, a manoeuvre yard, a vehicle. Software does not replace that entry. It stops the training log, the rota and the instalments from falling apart in the week WORD has dates and two cars are in for service. Below: what breaks without a system, what we do not promise (no “WORD API”), and when a specialist package such as biz.prawko.pl is enough versus your own panel.
What breaks in a driving school when hour logs, instructor rotas and fees live in three spreadsheets
A typical school has several instructors, 2–6 cars, an intake every few weeks and a queue for “after 4 pm” lessons. The pupil wants to pick a window after work. The instructor keeps the day in their head. The office chases an instalment because the state test is on Friday and the extra-hour fee has not landed. That is not a “missing App Store listing”. It is a dispute about hours that a glove-box slip will not settle.
- Instructor rotas on a phone: two pupils at 5 pm, the car in for service, the yard taken by another category.
- Hour logs on a slip in the glove box — a dispute on hours at the internal exam and on extra lessons after a fail.
- Instalments, the joining fee and extras in Excel; arrears surface on WORD day, when stress is highest.
- Course sign-up via Messenger: no GDPR consents, no lecture-room cap, no PKK on the card before theory starts.
- The pupil cannot book a lesson in an instructor’s open window and calls in the middle of someone else’s hour.
- The book of persons trained (kept under the rules — in practice schools plan for retention on the order of 10 years from the last entry) is filled in “at the end of the course”, not as they go.
- A state test in the school’s car (allowed in a defined range of categories, at the examinee’s request and cost, with the school’s consent and the WORD procedure) vanishes in an email, because nobody tied the status to the car rota.
PKK, hour volumes, the internal exam and WORD — a training process the system must watch, not invent
The candidate does not “start tomorrow” because they wrote it on chat. First comes the PKK at the transport office, a medical certificate, a photo. Someone who wants category B from age 17 also needs a parent or guardian consent. The school puts the PKK number on the card and only then counts theory and lessons. The software does not issue a PKK and does not log into the office. It stores the number, a status “in progress / finished / interrupted” and the dates.
For category B the practical minimum is, in common use, 30 hours of theory (including a first-aid block in the programme) and 30 hours of practice on the yard and in traffic. Other categories have other minima (B+E, for example, has a lower practical floor than B). After a failed state test the pupil usually buys a few hours aimed at the fault, not a whole course from zero. The system must count clock hours delivered, block the internal exam if the counter has not hit the minimum, and stop an instructor “adding three hours from memory” on Sunday night.
- Intake: category, theory cohort date, joining fee, instalments, consents, PKK number, medical certificate, parent consent if needed.
- Classroom: lecture attendance, materials, internal tests, a seat cap.
- Lesson calendar: instructor + vehicle + yard or town, a travel buffer between pupils; a service takes the car out of the pool.
- A pupil hour counter — what the school must have in the log and on the lesson card, not “it sort of adds up”.
- A pupil portal: hours left, lesson booking, payment, internal-exam date, WORD date as a status (not as “dates pulled from an API”).
- SMS: tomorrow’s lesson, an overdue instalment, a slot freed by a cancel, a reminder of documents for the test.
We do not promise a WORD integration or a “public state-exam API”
State-exam calendars, Info-Car / official systems and WORD procedures change and do not have a public API that we can legally, cheaply and stably plug into a driving-school calendar. We do not paint “integration with every WORD in Poland in the rota price” on a slide. The exam is a status and a date that the office or the pupil enters after booking in the official channel. That is more honest than a promise that dies at the first form change on a WORD website.
A practical test in the school’s car is possible in a defined range of categories, at the examinee’s request and cost, with the school’s consent and after the vehicle-admission procedure the given WORD publishes (an application plus a statement). The system can watch: whether the car is free, whether inspections are valid, whether the statement went, whether the instructor knows that day the car is on the test yard and not on lessons. That is resource logistics, not “logging into WORD”.
What we actually build: sign-up, rota, hour counter, fees, pupil portal
A cousin of course enrolment and service booking: intake, group, a time resource, payment. The difference: the vehicle is a resource, the hour is logged for inspection, and the pupil has a right to know how many hours are left without asking the instructor on the car park. The start we usually ship before the next intake:
- A category sign-up form with room caps and a waiting list.
- A lesson calendar with a “same car / same instructor / same pupil at 4 pm” clash rejected.
- Theory and practice counters, internal-exam status, a WORD date field.
- Instalments, extra-lesson fees, a booking block on arrears — if you decide that (your terms, not our moral lecture).
- SMS and email. An instructor mobile app (day list, pupil sign-off, GPS as an option) — phase two, not a condition of the intake.
A driving-school package or custom — criteria, not pride in “our own app”
Specialist products exist (including suites in the biz.prawko.pl class and other licences with PKK and pupil logs). One school, category B, two instructors and you do not mind a third-party cloud logo — price a package first. Custom when you have several branches, your own pupil app under the brand, unusual categories (C+E, tram, periodic training, code 95), your own theory e-learning, or you want the same intake engine as language courses. Comparison: package or custom software.
The usual start with us: sign-up + lesson rota + hour counter + instalments. Video materials, a 1,000-question test bank, an instructor iOS app — after the first intake that does not explode. We do not build a “platform for the whole OSK industry in Poland” for eight pupils in May.
GDPR, yard footage and data of an underage pupil
PKK, a personal id number, a medical certificate, parent consent for a 17-year-old, a photo, a phone number — a set you do not keep in a Facebook group named “Cat. B summer”. Consent to an SMS about tomorrow’s lesson follows from the training contract; consent to a newsletter for a new motorcycle intake is separate. Filming lessons and publishing a “failed reverse park” on TikTok is another consent most pupils will not give. Roles: the instructor sees their pupils and the rota, not every instalment balance. More in GDPR in applications.
How driving-school software pays back before the next intake
One recovered instructor hour a day (no empty window from a no-show without SMS, no double-booked car) is real money over a month, not a “digital transformation”. A pupil who sees the counter and books lessons themselves is less likely to blame the school at the test. An instalment that lands before WORD day, not on the morning of the exam, leaves a 5-star review instead of a Google complaint. Bain / HBR: keeping (here: finishing the course and referring a sibling) is cheaper than another lead from a driving-school listings portal.
The OSK register, classroom, yard and vehicle — software does not replace art. 28, only the log
Running a driving school is a regulated activity (Polish driving-licence law, art. 28). A register entry, an instructor with rights and documented practice (in the typical requirement: instructor rights plus 3 years of training, or a hired instructor who has them), a lecture room, an office, a manoeuvre yard and a training vehicle — an app does not “sort that”. The system watches which vehicle is free, which car has a valid inspection, who is licensed for category C when a C+E pupil lands on the rota. We do not paint a “WORD certificate PDF from the calendar”.
The book of persons trained and the lesson card are records that schools in practice plan to keep on the order of 10 years from the last entry. Software can print and count clock hours. We do not promise an official will throw away the required form for “our pretty PDF”. You keep the log.
Category B 30+30, PKK before theory, age 17 with parental consent — programme minima, not Facebook
For category B the common volume is 30 hours of theory (with a first-aid block in the programme) and 30 hours of practice on the yard and in traffic. Other categories have other minima — B+E has a lower practical floor than B. The system counts hours delivered and blocks the internal exam if the counter has not hit the minimum you set for the category. We do not interpret the ordinance in place of your lawyer. You set the floor, we watch it.
The candidate profile (PKK) is issued at the transport office, not at the school. The number, medical certificate and photo sit on the card before theory starts. A 17-year-old adds parent or guardian consent. The software does not log into the office and does not “pull PKK from an API”, because we do not plug a public, cheap interface of that kind into the rota price.
WORD, Info-Car and a test in the school car: status, date, vehicle logistics — no invented API
State-exam calendars change on WORD sites and in channels such as Info-Car. There is no public WORD API that we legally, cheaply and stably wire into a lesson calendar. The exam is a status and a date entered after booking in the official channel. A practical test in the school’s car is possible in a defined range of categories, at the examinee’s request and cost, with the school’s consent and after the vehicle-admission procedure the given WORD publishes (an application plus a statement). The system watches: car free, inspections valid, statement sent, the instructor knows that day the car is on the test yard, not on lessons. That is resource logistics, not “logging into WORD”.
Describe categories, instructor and car count, and whether the rota, fees or “hours left” hurt. We will ship an MVP for the next intake: sign-up, calendar, counter. The state test stays a status. No invented WORD API.
Frequently asked questions
- Can the pupil book a lesson in an app or on the site?
- Yes — in windows the instructor opens, on a free car, inside the course hour cap. An overdue instalment and a spent counter can block booking if you set that in the terms. First lessons often stay with the office until the PKK is on the card.
- Several cars, instructors and branches?
- Yes. A “same car at 4 pm” clash is rejected. A service, an inspection or a test in the school car takes the vehicle out of the pool. A second branch has its own yard and calendar, a shared pupil card if someone finishes theory in another town.
- What about the PKK and state systems?
- We store the PKK number and a status on the card. A state-system integration only where there is a legal, documented API and a contract. Default: a field, a date, a scan attachment. No “log into WORD” promise.
- Will the system replace the book of persons trained?
- It can lighten it and give a print / export for an inspection. We do not claim an official will accept “only our PDF” instead of the required form. You keep the log; we stop hours vanishing between the lesson and the notebook.
- How many hours for category B?
- In common volume 30 hours of theory and 30 of practice — that is the programme minimum, not a pass guarantee. The system counts hours delivered and extra-lesson fees. We do not interpret the ordinance for your lawyer; you set minima for the categories you run.
- How long to go live?
- Intake + rota + counter + instalments — usually in time for one course cycle, in weeks, not a year. An instructor mobile app, theory e-learning, a second branch — phase two, once the first intake passes without a 10 pm call “which car tomorrow?”.
- Can a 17-year-old sign up alone?
- They can fill the form, but parent or guardian consent and a PKK must be on the card before the theory counter starts. The system watches the attachment and the status; it does not “look the other way because mum promised to bring it”.
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