Assessing fitness to drive Guide
As a doctor in Queensland, you play a key role in determining fitness to drive for your patients using the national Assessing Fitness to Drive medical standards. This includes recommending when we need to apply conditions or restrictions on someone’s driver licence.
Read more about your role.
Medical certificate for drivers
In Queensland, drivers have a legal responsibility to be medically fit to drive. For us to decide if someone can continue to drive, we encourage them to seek your advice and ask you to complete a Medical Certificate for Driver (F3712) form.
You can follow this guide to help you do this.
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Choose either the private or commercial standard
The Assessing Fitness to Drive standards set out the medical criteria for safe driving and what you need to consider. The standards are grouped into:
The standard that you need to use depends on the type of vehicle, type of licence, and the purpose for which the patient is planning to drive.
Read the following to help decide which standard to use to assess a patient.
Private vehicle driver standard
You should apply the private standards to drivers who hold or are applying for a:
- C (Car type) licence
- CA (Automatic Car) licence
- RE (Motorcycle or Moped) licence
- R (Motorcycle) licence
- LR (Light Rigid) licence.
However, if your patient also holds or is applying for any of the licences or authorities listed in the following commercial vehicle standards section then you must assess the patient using the commercial standard.
Commercial vehicle standard
Driving a commercial vehicle has greater risks, so higher health standards apply to drivers.
You must apply the commercial standards to drivers applying for or holding:
- a heavy vehicle licence
- MR (Medium Rigid) licence
- HR (Heavy Rigid) licence
- HC (Heavy Combination) licence
- MC (Multi-Combination) licence
- an authority to drive public passenger vehicles, for example, a bus, taxi, rideshare or limousine
- an authority to drive a vehicle carrying bulk dangerous goods with a capacity more than 500L or 500kg
- a heavy vehicle licence to drive a vehicle over 8 tonnes gross vehicle mass (GVM)
- an accreditation as a tow truck driver.
A driver who does not meet the medical standards for a commercial vehicle licence may still be eligible for a private vehicle licence.
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How to assess a patient’s medical condition for fitness to drive
When you assess a patient's fitness to drive, you must follow the standards in the current edition of Austroads Assessing Fitness to Drive. These standards provide guidance about how a mental or physical incapacity may affect a person’s ability to drive safely.
When you assess how a medical condition or disability affects your patient’s driving, consider:
- how well they can see, hear, and feel things
- how well they can move and control their body
- how well they can think, remember things, and make decisions
- the risk of suddenly not being able to control the vehicle because of a health problem
Helpful tools
We encourage you to use our Private and Commercial Vehicle Driver’s Health Assessment (F3195) form as a tool to guide your medical assessment. If you choose to use the form, you should retain it with the patient’s medical records.
Health Pathways on the Queensland Health website may also assist you to manage common medical conditions for fitness to drive.
Assessing drivers 75 or older without a health condition
We require everyone 75 or older to carry a medical certificate for motor vehicle drivers whenever they drive. Some of these people may not have a medical condition. Using the general guidelines in the Assessing fitness to drive standards can be helpful.
Temporary conditions
Symptoms that are short term or only happen sometimes can also affect safe driving. You should assess these using the standards for temporary conditions in the Assessing Fitness to Drive
If the condition is temporary, the patient does not need to notify us. However, the patient must follow any recommended non-driving periods.
When to involve specialists
The Assessing Fitness to Drive standards specify when you must refer a patient to a relevant specialist.
You can also refer a patient to a specialist, if you need more information to make your recommendation to us. Complete the medical certificate after the specialist assesses the patient and provides you with their advice.
Specialist wait times
Sometimes, there may be a delay in getting an appointment to see a specialist. While your patient waits to see the specialist, they may want to keep driving. Learn when you can issue an interim medical certificate to allow your patient to keep driving until their appointment
Practical driving assessment
You can refer your patient to an occupational therapist for a practical driving assessment. This can be helpful where:
- the impact of medical condition on the patient’s driving is unclear
- the patient may need vehicle modifications to safely operate a vehicle.
Read about completing an interim medical certificate so your patient can do the driver assessment.
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Recommending changes to a patient's driver licence
Our role is to make decisions about who can drive on Queensland roads, balancing a person's need to drive and road safety.
As Queensland's driver licensing authority, we make the final decision about your patient’s driver licence and their continued driving. We base our decision on your assessment of their medical condition.
You may recommend one of the following. Your patient:
- meets the medical criteria for an unconditional licence
- meets the medical criteria for a conditional licence
- does not meet the medical criteria to hold a driver licence.
Recommending an unconditional licence
If the person meets the criteria for an unconditional licence, this means they’ll have:
- no M (medical condition) recorded on their driver licence
- no licence conditions or restrictions.
Examples of why you may recommend an unconditional licence include when the person:
- does not have a permanent or long-term medical condition
- has a permanent or long-term medical condition and the Assessing Fitness To Drive standards indicate the person is fit to hold an unconditional licence
- has a medical condition that has improved, and the person no longer needs a conditional licence and requires no further medical review
- has a non-progressive medical condition which does not require a further medical review and they do not need to drive a modified vehicle or a vehicle that has an automatic transmission
- is 75 years or older and has no permanent or long-term medical condition.
If the patient is 75 years or older, they must carry a current Medical Certificate for Motor Vehicle Drivers whenever they drive even though they may have an unconditional licence.
Recommending a conditional licence
A conditional licence allows the driver to maintain a driver licence with conditions on holding that licence to ensure public safety.
You can recommend that we issue a conditional licence for patients who have a condition listed in the Assessing Fitness To Drive standards that is likely to make their driving less safe, but whose medical treatments, vehicle or driving modifications enables them to drive safely.
If the patient meets the medical criteria for a conditional licence, this means they:
- will have an 'M' condition recorded on their licence
- must always carry while driving a copy of their Medical certificate for Driver
- will need you to periodically review their medical condition. At the review period, you’ll need to do a medical assessment to determine their continued fitness to drive.
Restrictions must be enforceable
You must only recommend licence conditions and restrictions on the person's medical certificate that the police can enforce.
Examples of licence conditions that the police can enforce are:
- must not drive on roads where the speed limit is more than 60km/h.
- must not drive on highways or freeways.
- must not drive at night.
- must only drive during daylight hours.
- may only drive within a 10km radius of their home.
Examples of licence conditions that the police can’t enforce are:
- must take medication
- must only drive in their local area
- must not drive when feeling unwell.
Recommending not fit to drive
Permanently not fit to drive
If you have assessed your patient as permanently not fit to drive, this means they must surrender their driver licence.
If your patient is over 75, chat with them about support services to help them adapt to life without driving.
Not fit to drive for a specified time
You can also specify a time range that your patient is not medically fit to drive on the Medical Certificate for Drivers form.
What happens with your medical assessment
Your patient must let us know the outcome of your assessment and give us a copy of your medical certificate for drivers form.
Read about what to do if you don't think they will tell us.
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Decide a review period and expiry date for the medical certificate
The Assessing Fitness to Drive standards sets review periods you must apply when deciding on an expiry date to record on the Medical Certificate for Motor Vehicle Driver.
The expiry date must be within the maximum review period. However, you can decide you need to review the person’s condition more often and make the expiry date shorter than the specified review period.
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Complete the medical certificate form to give to your patient
Complete the Medical Certificate for Driver (F3712) form with your patient's information and what you recommend based on your medical assessment. Only include relevant information on the form. You do not need to include your patient’s diagnosis on the form.
We’ll consider any changes we need to make to their driver licence based on your advice.
Give your patient the medical certificate form, and keep a copy with their medical records.
Talk to your patient about what to do next
Your patient needs to give us their medical certificate form.
You can refer them to our information on how to report a medical condition or explain the options they have to submit the form to us, including using our online service.
If you believe that a patient is unlikely to notify us about their medical condition and will continue to drive against your medical advice, you are encouraged to notify us. Read about when you should report your patient’s medical condition direct to us.
When you can complete an interim medical certificate
We'll let your patient keep driving until they see a specialist if:
- they have an appointment to see the right specialist as soon as possible
- you don’t think their health problem is likely to suddenly make them unable to concentrate or drive safely before their appointment happens
- you complete an interim Medical Certificate for Drivers form to cover only the time until their appointment
- they always carry their certificate whenever they drive and comply with any conditions – ensure your patient knows about this.
Assessing fitness to drive, 30 Sep 2025, [https://oss-uat.clients.squiz.net/transport/licensing/healthy-to-drive/for-health-professionals/assessing-fitness-to-drive]
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