Traffic agenda

From 20.4. public authorities operates in normal mode.

Expired documents

Authorities must operate on Mondays and Wednesdays, check on the website or official notice board of the respective authority
If the authority is completely closed – contact the superior Regional Authority or the Ministry of the Interior for remedy
Driver cards for tachograph or driving licences can be also applied for at municipalities with extended powers outside the permanent place of residence
Drivers are recommended to made the application for new documents only in urgent cases. (Based on the government resolution on minimizing office visits.)
If the validity of the documents expired (driving license; driver's professional competence certificate; confirmation of the loss, theft, damage or destruction of the driving license according to § 115 par. 5 of the Road Traffic Act) during the lockdown, these documents are considered to be valid, i.e. the holders of these documents will not be penalized in the offence proceedings for the performance of the activity carried out with the document which expired during the lockdown. In other words, the infringement consisting in driving with such a document, the validity of which expires during the lockdown, is not a fault and not all formal characteristics of an offence are fulfilled. The same applies to the material character of the offence, i.e. the lack of social harmfulness. The authorities of the Police of the Czech Republic or municipal police will proceed this way when assessing the offences according to § 125c par. 1 letter k) of the Road Traffic Act consisting in violation of § 6 par. 7 of the same act (to have valid documents on you when driving). In connection with the above, please note that the offences under § 125c par. 4 letter b) of the Road Traffic Act will have to be assessed individually. If an individual is obliged to return a driving license but is not objectively unable to meet this obligation due to the declared lockdown, the formal feature of the facts of the offence, i.e. fault, will not be fulfilled either. However, it is always necessary to assess whether the person actually acted this way only in connection with the declared lockdown.
With regard to the above, the Ministry of Transport thinks that at the moment it is not necessary for the citizens of the Czech Republic for example to replace driving licenses which have expired.
ATTENTION: the same approach cannot be guaranteed abroad. This only applies to the Czech Republic!
The situation abroad is also changing very quickly and the states are taking various measures. So far, we do not have any information on whether and how the authorities of the other states or the EU will issue any instructions on control activities in relation to the validity of documents. We recommend travelling with valid documents.

Professional competence certificates (no training)

If the citizen's documents have expired during the lockdown, the citizen cannot be blamed by the lockdown in the Czech Republic, when movement is restricted, office hours are limited, and the citizens are advised not to clump together e.g. in offices. Driver whose professional competence certificate expires during the lockdown and who has not managed to attend training (has not completed 35 hours of training) can drive in the Czech Republic. When the lockdown ends, the driver would have to complete the training and apply for the professional competence certificate to be granted to him/her.
ATTENTION: the same approach cannot be guaranteed abroad. This only applies to the Czech Republic!

Deadlines in administrative proceedings

Drivers' agenda subject to administrative proceedings shall be governed by Act No. 500/2004 Coll., Code of Administrative Procedure, and participants in these proceedings are advised to use the procedure under § 41 of this act. In this regard, we refer to the opinion of the Ministry of the Interior on the assessment of deadlines in public administration during the lockdown. Although we are aware that the office hours of public authorities are limited within the meaning of point 3 of the Government Resolution No. 217 of 15 March 2020, we believe that it is essential to maintain the operation of offices at least to a minimum extent so that citizens have the opportunity to take over the documents which have already been issued, and, to a limited extent, to make an application for a driving license, mainly in cases where the return of a driving license has been requested. We recommend to give priority to professional drivers as much as possible, especially when applying for driver cards, as professional drivers continue to provide transportation.

Depositing a numberplate

During the lockdown situation, the Ministry of Transport recommends to apply for unregistration in an electronic way because even if the particulars of the application will be delivered later, the date when the application was submitted will be the decisive date which will be listed in the register as the date of unregistration. We have informed all municipal departments with extended powers and regional authorities about this possibility.

Technical Inspection Stations (STK)

They are in operation, there is no limitation. There is no pardon, driving without a valid technical inspection certificate, even during the lockdown, means that the vehicle is not fit for being operated on a road.

Technical inspection can be still carried out only in the country where the vehicle is registered. Even though there is the lockdown, it is not possible to carry out technical inspection abroad or to carry out technical inspection of a vehicle registered abroad at Czech Technical Inspection Stations. When the lockdown ends, vehicles with an expired technical inspection certificate will not be allowed to leave for the countries of their registration as these vehicles are technically unfit.

Technical inspections of small vessels

Technical inspections of small vessels can be carried out even during the lockdown.