Since January 2021, the number of driving schools in Russia has fallen by about 15 percent, a shift reported by a major newspaper that cited data from the analytics service Kontur.Focus. The platform shows a drop from 7,000 driving schools at the start of the period to 5.96 thousand by March 2023.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs noted that last year 672 driving schools certified that their training facilities and material base met the required standards for the traffic police, compared with 764 such confirmations in 2021. These reviews occur every five years, and a school cannot operate without this accreditation.
Speaking to the newspaper, Mikhail Borodachev, the director general of AutoDriver driving school, described the sector as enduring difficult times. He attributed the pressure to ongoing sanctions, the withdrawal of foreign operators, and rising prices for vehicles and spare parts. These factors, he explained, are shrinking the pool of Russians who can afford to receive driver education.
With fewer students, schools face reduced income while continuing to shoulder fixed costs such as building rents and the upkeep of shuttle vehicles. Borodachev emphasized that driving courses operate as self-sustaining businesses and do not rely on external funding.
Earlier reports noted that the school’s leadership had allocated a substantial sum, around seven hundred thousand rubles, to help students complete their training and qualify—an example of internal support aimed at sustaining enrollment during tough times.