Someone fills out a driving school's contact form saying "I want to sign up for a category B course," leaves a phone number, and waits. The office calls back just to ask for a PKK number — and the candidate has no idea what that even is, because they haven't been to the office yet. Instead of a single sign-up, a week of back-and-forth messages follows before anyone reaches the first theory lesson.
This article explains how the actual "office, then a PKK number, then the driving school" order works according to gov.pl, which fields an enrolment form genuinely needs, what to do with a candidate who doesn't have a number yet, and why collecting copies of ID documents isn't the way to handle any of it.
The problem: an inquiry arrives, but no PKK number
A driving licence candidate usually looks up a driving school online first, and only afterwards learns that before enrolling, something has to be sorted out at a government office. The result: a form submission or phone call asking to enrol, with no PKK number, at a stage where the school can't do anything with that inquiry anyway. The office has to call back, explain the whole procedure from scratch, and either lose the candidate — who gets discouraged by the extra step — or arrange a "call back once you've sorted it" and then forget about it until someone remembers on their own.
This isn't the candidate's fault — it's that the process has two stages in two different places, and the enrolment form doesn't show that. The fix isn't explaining it over the phone every single time; it's having the form and an automatic reply do that explaining instead.
The order per gov.pl: from a PKK number to the exam at a WORD centre
What a PKK number actually is
The gov.pl portal's "Get a driving licence" service describes the procedure directly: a candidate first gets a PKK number (Candidate Driver Profile number) at their local licensing office — a unique number for each candidate that lets a driving school and the regional road traffic centre find them in the system (gov.pl portal, "Get a driving licence"). Without that number, a school formally has no way to register a candidate in the system, no matter how carefully the contact form was filled in.
What happens after enrolment
Once a candidate has the number, they go to a driving school and enrol in a course, bringing the PKK number with them — that's literally how gov.pl describes it. Next comes the theory course, the practical course, a theory exam at a regional road traffic centre (WORD), and after passing that, a practical exam, also at the WORD, again with the PKK number in hand. That's a sequence with a specific order, not a set of steps that can be shuffled — which is exactly why the enrolment form and the school's messages should reflect that order instead of assuming the candidate already knows it.
The enrolment form: which fields are actually needed
A driving school's enrolment form needs surprisingly little in practice: a PKK number (if there already is one), a name and phone number for contact, the chosen licence category, and roughly which days work for lessons. That's enough for the office to plan a first contact instead of calling back to ask questions the form could have asked directly.
Every extra field — home address, national ID number, ID document series — should have a specific reason for being collected at the enrolment stage, not just "just in case." The more fields that aren't strictly necessary, the more people abandon the form halfway through, before ever reaching the PKK number question.
No PKK number yet: what to send instead of calling
A candidate without a PKK number isn't a lost candidate — they're a candidate who needs one simple message, not a phone call explaining everything from zero. An automatic reply can briefly describe where to go (the local licensing office) and what to sort out there, without promising how long it will take — because office waiting times depend on the office, not the school, and a promise made on behalf of an institution the school has no control over eventually falls apart.
A few days after first contact, it's worth sending a single reminder — not daily, just once — asking whether the number has come through yet. That's the one moment a candidate genuinely needs a nudge to get back to something that's easy to put off.
Copies of ID documents: what the data protection authority says
A driving school has the right to verify a candidate's identity, but the right to process data from an ID card isn't the same as the right to make a copy of it. Poland's data protection authority (UODO) states directly that in most cases showing the document for visual inspection is enough, and under the data minimisation principle in Article 5 of the GDPR, personal data must be adequate and limited to what's necessary for the purpose (UODO, 16 August 2022).
In practice that means: the ID is shown at enrolment, and the office records only what's needed from it (name, PKK number), instead of keeping a scan or photo of the document in an email inbox or on a staff member's phone. Less data in fewer places also means less to explain if anyone ever has to answer where that data physically sits.
Form fields on a phone matter
Most candidates fill out an enrolment form from a phone, often between classes or during a work break — and how the field itself is built affects whether they finish at all.
A phone field with type="tel"
For a phone number field, it's worth setting the type="tel" attribute — that brings up a keyboard on the phone suited to entering digits, letting someone type the number faster than on a standard text keyboard (web.dev, Learn Forms: Form fields).
One field for a number, not several
Numbers — a phone number, sometimes a PKK number — are better kept in a single field instead of split across several boxes (say, a separate area code and a separate rest of the number). One field lets the browser suggest autofill from saved contact details, and splitting it into several fields breaks that option (web.dev, Learn Forms: Autofill).
The practical lesson schedule: a separate topic
Enrolling with a PKK number is only the start — after that comes the practical lesson schedule, rescheduling, and reminders before each lesson. That's broad enough on its own that we won't try to summarise it here — this article is only about the first contact, the moment a candidate actually enters the school's system.
Check it yourself: the form and a "how to get a PKK number" template
Before automating anything, review the current enrolment form against three questions: does it ask for a PKK number, does it have a phone field of type tel in a single box, and does it include fields nobody has checked the answers to in a long time. Remove what isn't being used.
The second step is a ready-made "how to get a PKK number" message template — one paragraph naming the right office (the local licensing department) and what to sort out there, so the office doesn't retype the same text from scratch every time. The third step is a review of the inbox and shared drive: if scans of candidates' ID documents are sitting there, it's worth deleting them and replacing them with a note like "ID shown for inspection, fields X and Y recorded" — in line with the data minimisation principle described by UODO.
A simple indicator worth checking on your own numbers — a hypothetical example, substitute your own figures: share of inquiries without a PKK number = number of inquiries without a number ÷ total inquiries that month.
That's a single illustrative example on invented numbers, not an industry statistic — but calculated on your own data, it shows how many explanatory phone calls could realistically be removed from the office's workload just by changing what the form says.
How it looks when a system handles enrolment
Instead of manually reviewing every inquiry, this whole pattern can run on Lead forms together with Automatic messages.
Inquiry received → is there a PKK number? → yes: proposed course and time slot → no: instructions and a reminder → recorded in the CRM.
The system never promises office deadlines or wait times for the number — that depends on the office, not the school. Once a candidate does have a PKK number, Booking Systems let them pick a convenient time for the first lesson themselves, and CRM and automations keep the whole enrolment record — PKK number, category, contact history — in one place instead of in the head of whoever happened to answer the phone. If a candidate doesn't respond to the PKK number reminder, AI follow-up sends another one on a set rhythm instead of leaving it to chance.
If the school also runs its own website with an enrolment form, Websites and stores makes sure that same form actually works well on a phone — with a tel field and a single number box, as described above.
The enrolment form is just one of several thresholds an inquiry has to clear before it turns into an actual sign-up — we cover that more broadly in why customers don't leave inquiries. The mechanism for queueing inquiries from different sources into one place is described in query handling automation, and what happens to an inquiry that doesn't get an immediate answer is broken down in follow-up automation. A broader picture of what a small business can actually hand over to a system, and what it can't, is in process automation in a company, and where candidates' data physically ends up along the way is covered in automation and GDPR.
Frequently asked questions
Can a driving school enrol a candidate without a PKK number?
Formally, a school can't register a candidate in the system without a PKK number, since that's what lets the candidate be found there — but it can accept a preliminary inquiry and send instructions on how to get the number before the candidate ever shows up for the first lesson.
Where does a candidate get a PKK number?
At their local licensing office — that's the first step of the whole procedure described by the gov.pl portal, before enrolment at a driving school even happens.
Can a school make a copy of a candidate's ID document?
The right to process data from an identity document isn't the same as the right to copy it — according to Poland's data protection authority, in most cases showing the document for visual inspection and recording only the necessary data is enough.
Why should a phone field have type "tel"?
Because it brings up a keyboard on the phone suited to entering digits, letting a candidate type the number faster and with fewer mistakes than on a standard text keyboard.
How long does getting a PKK number take?
It depends on the specific office and how busy it is, which is why a school shouldn't promise a specific timeframe — it's enough to clearly point to where to go and follow up after a few days if the candidate hasn't been in touch.
What should be done with ID copies collected in the past?
It's worth deleting them from inboxes and shared drives and replacing them with a short note that the document was shown for inspection and which fields were recorded from it — in line with the data minimisation principle.