New law prompts issuance of more learners' licence

The number of learners' driving licence issued in the last one year was two time higher than the number of learners license of previous year following the legislative reforms came into force a year ago, reported national broadcaster Yle.

About 36,000 learners' permit were issued countrywide in a year compared to about 17,000 of the previous year.

The application procedure which previously had experienced backlog in the early stages after the reform was implemented.

"It was expected that interest in learners' permit would surge. This spring saw somewhat longer processing period due to increased volume," said Traficom specialist Henna Antila.

Antila, however, said that the processing time has been reduced due to increased resources.

At the moment, it takes about three weeks to for the licence to arrive in addition to the period for mailing the licence.

Application for the learners' permit became easier from the beginning of July 2018.

After the change, the driving instructor no longer needs take a theory test and exemptions are made to modifications to a learners' vehicle.