Definiton

The driver's license is a necessary authorization for driving motorized vehicles on public roads. This document has become very important for many of the planet's inhabitants. It is true that before the existence of this document,there were a series of rules of conduct that those carrying out public transport had to respect. For this reason, the idea of imposing a driver's license since the appeareance of the first car did not seem that far fetched.

The first driver's license

The first driver's license appeared alongside with the first car - the Motorwagen. The person who had this document for the first time in his pocket was Karl Benz. Obviously, he did not have to pass some tests carried out by the police. At that time, in 1888, there were no regulations on cars, which were rather compared to inventions. Benz's license was, in fact, a document with which he could travel the streets with the car he had just invented. The necessity of the permit arose due to the fact that his car was noisy and generated lots of smoke, and this disturbed the inhabitants of Benz's hometown, which prompted him to request permission to use his vehicle on public roads from the Duchy of Baden.

The introduction of the driver's license

For many years, driving licenses were granted to anyone who required them. It was not until 1903 that Prussia introduced a test for those wishing to drive a car. At the same time, the Motor Car Act of 1903 was passed in the UK, which stated that every car driver must have a license. The minimum age was set at 17 and the maximum speed was 20 km / h (around 12.4 mph). The first driving test was introduced in the UK only in 1934.In Germany only in 1910 it became mandatory to have a driver's license. Most of the European states had introduced the document, the last state being Belgium in 1977. To put it in other words, in Belgium, before 1977, you could receive a driving license without being subjected to any kind of tests.