Driver’s license gone? We will help you on your way to getting your driver’s license back and with all questions regarding the medical-psychological assessment (MPA).
The driver’s licensing authority will always mandate an MPA report when you have committed serious driving offenses when operating a vehicle. In such cases, the authority will assume that the underlying cause of these offenses is more serious problematic behavior that must be changed. It then cannot be sure that you will not commit similarly serious offenses when driving in the future. The MPA report is intended to show whether you have recognized your problematic behavior of the past, have made the appropriate changes and whether these changes are permanent. Only once your driver’s licensing authority has received an assessment report with a favorable prognosis on your future behavior on the road will it reinstate your driver’s license.
You can apply for your driver’s license to be reinstated three months before your suspension period ends. The driver’s licensing authority will then write to you, requiring that you submit an MPA report. In this letter, your licensing authority will list the issues that the report must assess and also state the underlying incidents and reasons.
If you have been caught committing serious driving offenses, the licensing authorities cannot be sure that this will not happen again in the future.
A medical-psychological assessment gives you the opportunity to show
- that you have learned from your past offenses
- that you have recognized your problem
- that you have changed your behavior accordingly
- that these changes are permanent changes for you
- and above all: that you can reliably avoid committing similar offenses in the future.
The costs for an MPA depend on the type and number of questions that the licensing authority has and the scope of assessment that arises from this. Costs range from approx. €550 to over €1,000 depending on the assessment efforts and added costs.
There are one-part queries and queries consisting of two or more parts that incur higher costs due to the greater efforts involved in their assessment. On certain occasions (alcohol, drugs and medication), additional laboratory tests are necessary.
Get in touch with us and we can give you the information you need! Find the addresses and telephone numbers of the TÜV Hessen assessment centers for driving fitness here
You are free to choose which officially certified assessment center for driver aptitude you wish to undergo the assessment at. But of course, the best choice is TÜV Hessen! Once you have chosen a center, please inform your driver’s licensing authority. The licensing authority will then send us your driver’s license file.
The medical-psychological assessment is not an exam. Instead, it is a chance for you to show the assessors that you have learned from your mistakes, have recognized the problem, have made the right changes and that these changes are permanent.
The most important thing is that you are credible. But you are this only if you are open and honest when describing your experiences concerning
- your individual traffic offenses
- your past problematic behavior that was the underlying cause for these
- the background and evolution of your problematic behavior
- how you have dealt with this on a personal level
- what you have changed in your behavior and your life situation, and precisely why and how you have made these changes
- and how you aim to avoid similar problematic behavior in the future.
It is impossible to memorize such things.
You will receive a positive result if you have recognized your problem, made the appropriate changes that are then permanent changes and are convincing in all of this. It sounds easy but it isn’t!
But a course that prepares you for the assessment itself cannot help you in this.
It is not easy to acknowledge one’s own mistakes and work through them, and changing problematic behavior or habits is even harder.
Obtaining professional and reputable advice and support for working through the problem that led to your driver’s license being withdrawn is always a sensible step – and one that should be taken as early as possible.
In contrast, a course to prepare you for the assessment with the goal of “passing” just like in an examination is not useful.
On the day of the assessment, bring with you all reports, confirmations or findings that you believe could be important such as lab results, therapy reports, course certificates, etc. We will look at these documents together with you.
But please make sure that you bring the original documents with you and that they are signed and dated.
In general, the MPA consists of three parts:
- The medical examination including a general physical examination and a case history of the problems that attracted attention while you were driving. For queries relating to alcohol, a blood sample is taken, while a urine sample is taken for queries relating to drugs.
- Tests on a computer to assess your performance, for instance your concentration and awareness levels.
- The psychological interview on the incidents recorded in your file, your history, your changes and whether these will remain permanent.
No one can guarantee that you will pass the MPA – only you can do much to achieve this:
- Work through the past incidents and your problematic behavior thoroughly and honestly
- and change your behavior accordingly
so that you not only receive a positive medical-psychological assessment report outcome and your driver’s license back, but also so that you avoid further problems in the future such as losing your driver’s license.
Like all assessors from officially certified driver aptitude assessment centers, the assessors from TÜV Hessen base their assessments on the driving fitness assessment guidelines issued by the Federal Highway Research Institute, as well as the assessment criteria in their current applicable version, issued by the German Society for Traffic Medicine (DGVM) and the German Society for Traffic Psychology (DGVP).
You can recognize reputable professional advice and support by the fact that is tailored to you personally and your individual history of problematic behavior:
- when it is not about learning prepared stories,
- when it is not about memorizing things,
- when you are not given a 100% pass guarantee
- when you are not promised “success or your money back.”
Reputable consultants are, for example, qualified psychologists with state-certified qualifications or a master’s degree or are consultants or therapists from addiction counseling centers.
The Federal Highway Research Institute (Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen) has further information on how you can recognize reputable support services.
You can also download the brochure containing detailed information about the MPA for free at: www.bast.de/DE/Publikationen/Medien/MPU/MPU.html * (only available in German).
Not everybody who has been caught driving under the influence of alcohol must prove alcohol abstinence. This does not solely depend on what you do up until the MPA but also what is right for your situation in the long term when it comes to alcohol. It is precisely this that you should then also implement before the MPA takes place.
It is only necessary to furnish proof of alcohol abstinence during the MPA if you have to permanently avoid drinking alcohol. This is most certainly the case if you are alcohol dependent.
If alcohol dependency is not an issue, the extent to which you had an alcohol problem needs to be assessed. Your blood alcohol concentration while driving under the influence of alcohol alone does not allow for any absolute statements to be made. It is therefore important that you thoroughly clarify what exactly your personal problem in handling alcohol was.
If you conclude that you cannot ensure that you will always consume alcohol in a controlled manner at all times in the future, you should stop drinking alcohol altogether and generally prove your abstinence for one year in an MPA.
If you conclude that you can still consume alcohol in a controlled manner, you should in any case reduce your alcohol consumption to a minimum and formulate and implement clear behavioral strategies for controlling your alcohol consumption. Furthermore, you should devise strategies for separating drinking and driving in the future.
If you are unsure which approach for consuming alcohol is right for you on a permanent basis, seek reputable professional advice and support.
If you are required to undergo an MPA as a result of drug or medication use, proof of drug abstinence is usually required. Generally, abstinence must be proven for one year – i.e., 12 months. In exceptional cases, six months are also sufficient. This depends on how serious your drug use was. If you are unsure about the degree of seriousness, seek professional help to clarify the situation.
You decide whether you want to present the assessment report to the driver’s licensing authority. If you have received a positive assessment report, you should definitely submit your assessment report. The driver’s licensing authority will then review the assessment report. If the driver’s licensing authority agrees with the opinion of the assessment report, your driver’s license will be reinstated.
However, if you do not submit an assessment report by the deadline set by the driver’s licensing authority, it will most likely reject your application for your driver’s license and charge the corresponding processing fee for doing so.
Even if an assessment report is unable to give a positive prognosis, you are in the best hands at TÜV Hessen. We will make detailed recommendations in the assessment report, identifying where there were deficiencies and what you can do to remedy them so that the next assessment report can be a positive one. If you still have questions about this, we are happy to explain in more detail in a follow-up consultation for the assessment report – free of charge!
Make sure that you do not miss the deadline that the driver’s licensing authority has set for submitting an assessment report. If you do not submit an assessment report by this deadline, your application for the reinstatement of your driver’s license may be rejected with a fee. If you need more time, it’s best to contact your driver’s licensing authority as soon as you can to possibly have the deadline extended.
