Renewing the D licence for bus drivers in Spain: deadlines and procedure

In Spain, the D licence, the bus licence, is valid for five years until the driver turns 65, and for three years from that age. It is renewed without an exam, by passing a medical check-up, and you can apply up to three months before it expires without losing any days of validity. You cannot drive with an expired licence.

Here is what the General Drivers Regulation (Reglamento General de Conductores) says, how renewal works according to the DGT (Spain's traffic authority), how it relates to the CAP (the Spanish driver certificate of professional competence) and how to keep each driver's licence date in view in Bus Center.

How long the D bus licence lasts

The D licence lasts five years up to age 65 and three from that age. The General Drivers Regulation says that the driving licence for classes C1, C1 + E, C, C + E, D1, D1 + E, D and D + E will have a period of validity of five years as long as its holder has not turned sixty-five, and of three years from that age (our translation).

That is half of what the B licence lasts, which has a validity of ten years up to age 65. And the period can be shortened: the regulation allows validity to be reduced if, when granting or extending it, it is found that the holder has an illness or impairment that may get worse. That is why not all the licences in a workforce expire at the same pace.

Validity also depends on points and requirements: it is conditional on the holder not having lost the whole initial allocation of points and on continuing to meet the requirements for obtaining it.

How the D licence is renewed

It is renewed without an exam, with a medical check-up. The DGT explains it like this: to renew the licence no exam is needed, only passing a medical check-up, and it can be done without going to its offices, at any authorised Driver Assessment Centre (Centro de Reconocimiento para Conductores) (our translation).

At the centre the whole renewal is done, photo included, and you are given a provisional licence with which you can drive in Spain until the definitive one arrives, which the DGT sends to your home in about a month and a half. The centre charges for the medical check-up and also for the traffic fee for the renewal.

In the regulation, renewal is called an extension of validity: it is granted by the Provincial Traffic Offices (Jefaturas Provinciales de Tráfico) at the applicant's request, once it is shown that the holder retains the required psychophysical fitness. A useful detail for professional drivers: extending a group 2 licence, which includes D, also extends the group 1 licences, such as B, that the holder has.

When it is best to apply for renewal

You can apply from three months before the expiry date, and applying early does not lose days. The General Drivers Regulation says that the application may be submitted up to a maximum of three months before its expiry date, with the new period of validity counted from that latter date (our translation).

The DGT sums it up the same way: renewing early does not mean losing days of validity, because the extension starts counting from the date the old one would have expired. For a coach company, that means there is no reason to wait until the last week: with three months' margin, the medical check-up can be fitted around the planning.

What happens if the licence expires

You cannot drive with an expired licence. The regulation says that a licence whose validity has lapsed does not authorise its holder to drive and that its use will lead to its immediate seizure by the authority or its officers (our translation).

An expired licence can still be renewed: the holder of an expired licence may apply for its extension with the same documents. But, as the DGT points out, you cannot drive while your licence is expired. And if you have no points left on your licence, you cannot renew it: you must first get it back.

The D licence and the CAP go together

To drive a bus in a road transport activity you need, in addition to the D licence, the certificate of professional competence (CAP), apart from the exemptions the rules provide; and the two are monitored separately because they expire on different dates. Moreover, one depends on the other: Royal Decree 284/2021 only lets continuing-training courses be taken by someone with a valid driving licence, and every time the qualification card is issued it is checked that the holder has a valid licence.

That is why it pays to look at both dates at once: a licence that expires before the CAP course can delay the course. We explain CAP renewal in how to renew the CAP, and that of the tachograph card in renewing the driver card.

The licence alert in Bus Center

In Bus Center, each driver's record holds their data, documents and expiry dates: licence, CAP and tachograph card. The dashboard gathers whatever expires in 30 days or less, and each alert shows as overdue, urgent (15 days or fewer) or warning. The alerts are seen on the dashboard.

When you start using the program, the set-up checklist points out the drivers who have no licence or CAP expiry date recorded. And when a driver renews the licence, they can send a photo of the new licence with its date from their phone; that date does not change the record until the office approves it.

If the dashboard warns you at 30 days, you are still within the three months in which you can renew without losing validity. You have all the expiry dates of a coach company in fleet expiry date tracking and the driver portal in the drivers section (in Spanish).

Sources consulted

Checked on 11 October 2026. We link to the original source so that you can consult the current text.

• Real Decreto 818/2009, de 8 de mayo, por el que se aprueba el Reglamento General de Conductores (texto consolidado). BOE.
• Renovar un permiso próximo a caducar. Dirección General de Tráfico.
• Real Decreto 284/2021, de 20 de abril, cualificación inicial y formación continua de los conductores (texto consolidado). BOE.