Driving unlicensed: The impact on South Dallas residents and the academy working to help

South Dallas native Norvel Dumas, 27, had been driving without a license for about a decade. He’d racked up hundreds of dollars in tickets and fines. But all of that is in his rearview mirror since he received his driver’s license in October 2023 through the South Dallas Driving Academy.

“A lot of people in South Dallas don’t know what it takes to get a license, and they also don’t have the money to pay off the fines that they might have on their records,” Dumas says.

The process for obtaining a Texas driver’s license is costly and complicated, even for someone without fines to pay. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) requires applicants to complete driving courses, but their only option is to pay private instructors, since schools phased out driver’s education in the ’90s.

Prospective drivers can’t obtain a permit without a DPS appointment, which in Dallas requires booking months in advance and pulling together documents that, if not perfectly in order, will send the applicant to the back of the line. 

So the academy provides a free and efficient route. 

“Growing up in an underserved community, it gave me motivation to provide a resource for Black and Brown people to have the opportunity to get their basic driver’s license,” says Von Minor, founder of the South Dallas Driving Academy. “We make it accessible by being rooted in South Dallas and fully subsidizing the cost of getting a driver’s license.”

The costs for unlicensed Texas drivers

Driving without a license violates section 521 of the Texas Transportation Code. Drivers who are stopped by law enforcement officials and do not have a license could be fined up to $200 and have their vehicle impounded. If the unlicensed driver has unpaid tickets, they face the possibility of a towed vehicle or being placed under arrest, depending on whether other charges are on their record. 

For South Dallas residents living at or below the poverty line, money already is stretched thin just to cover necessary expenses such as groceries and bills. So the already costly process can be prolonged as fines accumulate over time.

Unlicensed drivers and drivers’ unfamiliarity with rules of the road also emerged as challenges in a survey the City conducted as part of Dallas Vision Zero — a strategic plan aimed at reducing traffic deaths and serious vehicle injuries.  

Minor’s experience growing up in South Dallas was that the majority of drivers did not have a license. He estimates that about 40% of the current South Dallas population needs one.

So in 2021, he launched the academy to walk people like himself through the process. At the time, Minor was vice president of strategic initiatives and development at BridgeBuilders in South Dallas’ Bonton neighborhood, which piloted the academy before it spun off into an independent nonprofit.

A free, fast driver’s license from South Dallas Driving Academy

The academy’s free driver education course is for South Dallas residents between the ages of 18 and 40 years old who are applying for a driver’s license for the first time. One recent graduate is Ashley Rojo, 19, who received her driver’s license through the academy’s Accelerated Driver’s License Program. She learned about it from her Dallas College automotive instructor after researching driving courses that would cost upward of $100. 

“I didn’t want to spend that much, but I mean, getting my license is something that I have to have, which is why I was going to give in and pay that much. That’s why I’m really happy I got my license here; it was free and it only took a month,” Rojo says.

The academy partners with nonprofit organizations like Wesley-Rankin, Cornerstone Crossroads Academy and Bonton Farms to identify potential students in need of a license. Anyone interested can fill out the application and is contacted with information for upcoming classes. 

Since the program started three years ago, 160 students have graduated. Classes typically last four weeks, and the academy provides laptops for each student to complete their driver education course and the Impact Texas Adult Driver program. For those facing transportation issues to travel to class, the academy provides them with bus passes.

Classes typically are led by proctors who help with exam preparations and with locating needed documents. When it’s time for their Department of Public Safety road test, the students and academy instructors head over to their partner, Pioneer Driving School.

“The things that our parents teach us when we’re young and barely driving is nothing like what I saw when I went to take the test,” Dumas says. “I mean, there was so many things I’ve done for years, like turning with one hand. I was just like, damn, I’ve really been doing this wrong?”

Partnering to remove barriers that ‘cause a domino effect of issues’ 

Dumas found out about the program through a flyer he saw posted in South Dallas. The academy partners with South Dallas Community Court Judge Mark Murrell, who dismissed Dumas’ tickets and fines, removing the main barrier standing between the 27-year-old and obtaining a license. 

Murrell, a Dallas native with more than 15 years as a City of Dallas municipal judge, partners with nonprofit organizations to give people who have warrants, tickets or fees the opportunity to instead perform community service.

“I see people almost everyday that don’t have a driver’s license, and that causes a domino effect of issues,” Murrell says. “Minor and I decided to work together to remove these obstacles. We’re here to help those that are willing to help themselves.”

Once the students complete their courses and pass the road test, they and the academy staff travel together to the South Dallas MegaCenter. The academy’s partnership with the Texas Department of Public Safety allows students to take their exams then and there, without having to wait months to obtain an appointment, and with academy staff onsite to assist if any issues arise.

This partnership perk comes with a limitation — the Department of Public Safety will accommodate up to 15 students for the final exam group visit, so the academy likewise limits its class size to 15. Its upcoming February 2025 class currently has a waitlist.

A driver’s license that unlocks job opportunities

The academy also provides a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) program that connects those who complete the program to jobs in the trucking industry. 

Jesse Munoz, a resident from the Pleasant Grove area, was released from prison in 2023 after serving a 3-year sentence. Prior to his arrest, Munoz says he would be in and out of trouble and never saw the need to have a legal driver’s license, despite receiving multiple tickets with fees totaling roughly $300.

“I got out and I knew I wanted to start doing things right,” Munoz says. “I got my license for the first time when I was 32, and I’m hoping that getting my CDL with South Dallas Driving Academy gives me more job options.”

The Trucking Cares Foundation, the charitable arm for the American Trucking Association, has donated roughly $60,000 to the academy since 2021. “We’re facing a national truck driver shortage,” says American Trucking Association spokeswoman Jessica Gail. She calls the academy a “transformative program” because it gives people the opportunity to obtain their basic driver’s license and their CDL in the same place.

Dumas, too, earned both licenses so that he can drive 18-wheelers or delivery trucks. After he graduated from the CDL program, the academy connected Dumas with Frito-Lay, part of PepsiCo, whose foundation also has donated $25,000 to the academy. Dumas now distributes Frito-Lay products as a semi-truck driver across the U.S.

“Me getting my license with South Dallas Driving Academy opened doors for me that I didn’t know I had,” Dumas says. “I’m in a different kind of lifestyle now. I can cover all of my bills because I took that risk.”