This page highlights important information for commercial and heavy vehicle drivers. It includes information about the commercial driver medical standards and how they are applied to licensing and fitness for duty, including how they relate to the National Heavy Vehicle Law. It also outlines your responsibilities as a driver, links to commercial driver health resources, and what to do if you do not agree with an fitness to drive assessment outcome.
This page will be updated as new information and resources become available.
Your health and driving
Driving a motor vehicle is a complex task requiring good vision, physical ability and cognitive capacity. Driving a heavy vehicle or driving for commercial activity, is particularly demanding, with more time spent on the road, the demands of the vehicle size and the responsibilities for passenger safety, just to name a few. The impact of heavy vehicle crashes on other road users and the environment can also be considerable. So good health and fitness to drive is not only essential for road safety, but a higher standard of health is required to safely operate a commercial or heavy vehicle, including public passenger vehicles. The licensing requirements as well as the broader heavy vehicle legislation and accreditation programs reflect these health requirements. All these programs aim to support you in staying healthy and safe to drive.
The commercial vehicle driver standards – when do they apply and when do I have to have a medical assessment?
Assessing Fitness to Drive contains two sets of standards – one for private vehicle drivers and one for commercial vehicle drivers. For all health conditions described in Assessing Fitness to Drive, the medical criteria that need to be met for fitness to drive are higher for commercial vehicle drivers.
The standards are applied in a number of circumstances:
Heavy vehicle licensing
For licensing purposes, the commercial vehicle driver standards apply to drivers of medium rigid vehicles and larger. The specific requirements for medical assessments for commercial licensing (whether assessments are required and how often) differ between the states and territories and are outlined in Appendix 1 of Assessing Fitness to Drive.