1.3 Scope
1.3.1 Medical fitness for driver licensing
This publication is designed principally to guide and support assessments made by health professionals regarding fitness to drive for licensing purposes. It should be used by health professionals when:
1. Treating any patient who holds a driver licence whose condition may affect their ability to drive safely.
- Most adults drive, therefore a health professional should routinely consider the impact of a patient’s condition on their ability to drive safely. Awareness of a patient’s occupation, licence category (e.g. commercial, passenger vehicle) or other driving requirements (e.g. shift work) is also helpful.
2. Undertaking an examination at the request of a driver licensing authority or industry accreditation body.
- Health professionals may be requested to undertake a medical examination of a driver for a number of reasons. This may be:
- for initial licensing of some vehicle classes (e.g. multiple combination heavy vehicles)
- as a requirement for a conditional licence
- for assessing a person whose driving the driver licensing authority believes may be unsafe (i.e. ‘for cause’ examinations)
- for licence renewal of an older driver (in certain states and territories)
- for licensing or accreditation of certain commercial vehicle drivers (e.g. public passenger vehicle drivers)
- as a requirement for Basic or Advanced Fatigue Management under the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme (refer to www.nhvr.gov.au).
This publication focuses on long-term health- and disability-related conditions and their associated functional effects that may impact on driving. It sets out clear minimum medical requirements for unconditional and conditional
licences that form the medical basis of decisions made by the driver licensing authority. This publication also provides general guidance with respect to patient management for fitness to drive. It does not address general management of clinical conditions unless it relates to driving.
This publication outlines two sets of medical standards for driver licensing or authorisation: private vehicle driver standards and commercial vehicle driver standards.
The standards are intended for application to drivers who drive within the ambit of ordinary road laws. Drivers who are given special exemptions from these laws, such as emergency service vehicle drivers, should have a risk assessment and an appropriate level of medical standard applied by their employer. At a minimum, they should be assessed to the commercial vehicle standard.
1.3.2 Short-term fitness to drive
This publication does not attempt to address the full range of health conditions that might impact on a person’s fitness to drive in the short term. Some guidance in this regard is included in section 2.2.3. Temporary conditions. In most instances, the non-driving period for short-term conditions will depend on individual circumstances and should be determined by the treating health professional based on an assessment of the condition and the potential risks.
1.3.3 Fitness for duty
The medical standards contained in this publication relate only to driving. They cannot be assumed to apply to fitness-for-duty assessments (including fitness for tasks such as checking loads, conversing with passengers and undertaking emergency procedures) without first undertaking a task risk assessment that identifies the range of other requirements for a particular job.