Drivers of public passenger vehicles

If you hold or are applying for driver authorisation, you must demonstrate medical fitness to drive a public passenger vehicle.

You’ll need to get your doctor to assess your fitness to drive safely as a commercial vehicle driver. Driving a commercial vehicle has higher medical standards due to a greater risk of crashes that cause injury or death coupled with longer driving hours.

Applying for or renewing driver authorisation

When you apply for Queensland driver authorisation, you must provide a current medical certificate for drivers issued for a commercial vehicle driver.

When you renew, you must give us a new medical certificate issued for a commercial vehicle driver if:

• your previously supplied medical is expiring soon
• there has been a change to your medical fitness.

How to get a medical certificate for drivers

After assessing your fitness to drive, your doctor will give you a medical certificate. Find out more about medical certificates for drivers.

Expiry date

We cannot issue driver authorisation past the expiry date of your medical certificate .

When you first give us your medical certificate, it must be no more than 6 months from the date the doctor issued it. It will remain current for up to 5 years from the issue date unless the doctor has specified an earlier expiry date on the certificate .

Your doctor may give you a medical certificate for a lesser period, especially if you have a medical condition that needs to be assessed more often.

Aged 75 or older

As a driver authorisation holder aged 75 or older, you must give us a medical certificate issued for a commercial vehicle driver every year, even if you don’t have a medical condition. You can give us your medical certificate at a transport and motoring service centre.

The commercial medical certificate also meets the requirements to keep your private vehicle driver licence and must be carried with you when driving. This means you will only need to have 1 medical assessment based on the commercial fitness to drive standards each year.

We'll align the expiry date of your driver authorisation with your medical certificate, so you'll need to renew your driver authorisation yearly.

Read about getting a medical certificate when you’re 75 or older.

We’ve asked you for a new medical certificate

We may also ask you, in writing, at any time to give us a new medical certificate if we reasonably suspect that you’re not medically fit to drive a passenger transport vehicle.

Read about how to get a new medical certificate if you have a letter from us asking for one.

Changes to your medical fitness

If you hold a Queensland or a non-Queensland licence, read about your legal obligations to be medically fit to drive and to notify us about your medical condition.

If you also hold driver authorisation, you must notify us if there is a change to your medical condition which makes you continuously unfit to safely operate a motor vehicle for more than 1 month. You need to contact your local Translink Regional Operations office in writing.