Attend the mandatory defensive driving talk (charla de manejo defensivo)
Duration: Not published officially; the session runs in groups
Walk in with no booking to any scheduled session — there is no other mandatory training.
Walk in with no booking to any scheduled session: Monday, Wednesday or Friday, starting at 8:30 or 18:30. This is the charla de manejo defensivo, the defensive driving talk, the only mandatory training on the Maldonado route.
The handout given out at the driver's license office: the charla schedule, the manual's address, and requirements for the vehicle and the accompanying driver. Original photo by the interviewee, provided for publication, 19.08.2026. The form's fields are left blank.Certificate of attendance at the charla de manejo defensivo: «con una duración de 1:30 hs». Original photo by the interviewee, provided for publication, 19.08.2026. Name, cédula number and QR code covered.
What to bring
Identity document: what they ask for at the door is not published officially, but do not go without one
After the session they hand out an attendance certificate — a constancia on Intendencia de Maldonado letterhead, with a QR code. The duration is printed on it in type: 1:30 hs. That is how it went for the person who got his license in Maldonado in 2026; the agency publishes nowhere how it is issued.
«Se deja constancia que el/la Sr./Sra. […] realizó el día […] charla de Manejo Defensivo, dictado por personal de la Dirección con una duración de 1:30 hs.»
The tirilla handed out at the office by the Dirección General de Tránsito y Transporte — the printed slip you get at the counter — requires in print that the attendance mark be shown at the office. So the paper from the session has to be kept and brought along.
«Debe presentar la tirilla de asistencia en oficinas.»
The number of seats in the room is limited. A woman who arrived right at the start was put at the end of the line — «if someone does not show, we will let you in» — and they did. Arriving early here is not politeness but the condition for getting in.
What it looks like: Campus Municipal, the side entrance, second floor, everyone waits in a common hall and then they let you into a room. The talk runs with photographs and video — with A2 Spanish you can follow the general sense.
She was let into the session on a passport while her cédula, the national identity card, was still being processed. What exactly they ask for at the door the agency does not publish — this is one case, not a rule.
Important
You do NOT need to book — come on any of the scheduled days: Monday, Wednesday or Friday.
The official times are 8:30 or 18:30. The driving school Punta publishes 8:00: that was the case in 2017. Count on 8:30 and arrive early.
The card for the trámite, the official procedure, says both «they will sign you up for the talk after payment» and «come without a booking». How that works in practice is not explained.
On the online route the talk is listed only under the «En persona» branch, although on neighboring trámites it is under both. It looks like an oversight; check at 4222 3333.
The talk is in none of the steps of the Montevideo procedure: there the mandatory training is a different one — 15 hours of practice.
There is no separate «curso teórico» on the route — this talk remains the only mandatory one.
The intendencia keeps the attendance record itself: on the renewal page the talk is assigned «if you have not attended it before».
There is no separate line for the talk in the IDM fee schedule, but the word «free» is not there either.
The «two hours» quoted by the IDM is about the school version of the talk for students of 16 and up, not the adult group. For 2023 the intendencia reported 3,430 people trained.
