Transparency of the German system of driving license reinstatement including the Medical Psychological Assessment was a critical issue in the past. Early information of the persons concerned contributed essentially to increasing transparency. Therefore, the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) collected neutral information by means of an interdisciplinary working group for the target groups of alcohol, drug and demerit point offender and established a website to provide the information (www.bast.de/mpu). (Legal) Regulations in the area of counselling measures for the improvement of the behavioural fitness to drive would be an additional and reasonably complementing step towards increased transparency. Thus, the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) commissioned the BASt to continue the activities of the working group in order to develop a concept for quality assurance in this area. The BASt's working group considers mandatory counselling after each revocation of the driving license prior to reinstatement as a worthwhile measure to improve traffic safety. For implementing mandatory counselling into the legal system it is suggested that a certificate of attendance should be a needful requirement for license application. Contents of the counselling session should be defined by the Regulation on the right to drive (FeV) and the competent driving licensing authority should inform the offender as soon as possible about compulsory counselling. This would lead to a cost-efficient and individually adequate alternative towards the improvement of the behavioural fitness to drive. The counselling should be performed provider-neutral. The authorization of counsellors may follow the examples for authorization of counsellors according to §§ 36, 43 FeV or § 4a Road Traffic Act (StVG). As there are very similar requirements for qualification in the whole field of legally regulated traffic psychological activities, but only restricted authorizations for each activity, a unified authorization and surveillance procedure for all traffic psychological activities is recommended. This could be operationalized by implementing a paragraph for traffic psychologists (TrafficPsych§) in the StVG. (Author/publisher)
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