The person sitting beside a learner driver is not just anyone. The General Traffic Department calls the role a training companion permit, and its conditions run longer than most people expect.
Five conditions
One: holding a general driving licence.
Two: good repute. The text spells it out: no previous criminal sentence, no offence against honour or trust, no serious traffic accidents, and never caught driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Three: passing a special examination in driving, in traffic instructions, rules and etiquette, in the principles of car mechanics, and in the applicant’s competence at teaching itself.
Four: holding a secondary school certificate or its equivalent.
Five: a separate door for relatives, set out below.
The two conditions that surprise people
The school certificate, and an exam in car mechanics. Anyone who assumed all it takes is a licence and an empty seat next to the learner will find the text says otherwise.
The relatives’ door
A teaching permit may be granted to a Kuwaiti wishing to train a close relative within the prohibited degrees of kinship, on condition of holding a valid private licence issued five years ago or more.
For this door the text mentions no school certificate and no mechanics exam. Which makes it a different track rather than merely an exemption from the first four conditions.
Renewal
A separate transaction called renewal of a training companion permit, with four papers: a printed renewal request for the teaching form, a copy of the civil ID, a copy of the passport, and two personal photographs, 4×6, on a blue background.
The ministry’s page gives no fee for this transaction, nor for the original permit.
Photo: a driving test. By f0976531950157, CC PDM 1.0 via Flickr.
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