Medical requirements for drivers of public passenger vehicles

If you’re a driver authorisation applicant or holder, you must demonstrate medical fitness to drive a vehicle used to provide a public passenger service.

You’ll need to get your doctor to assess your fitness to drive safely using the commercial Assessing Fitness to Drive standards. These set out higher national medical criteria for commercial vehicle drivers. Driving a commercial vehicle has greater risks of crashes that cause injury or death coupled with longer driving hours.

Applying for or renewing driver authorisation

You must:

• complete a Private and Commercial Vehicle Driver's Health Assessment (F3195) form and give it to your doctor.
• ask your doctor to complete the Medical Certificate for Motor Vehicle Driver (F3712) form and do a fitness-to-drive medical assessment. This is the approved form for a medical certificate for drivers.

You’ll need to meet any costs associated with getting a medical certificate.

Expiry date

Your medical certificate must be no more than 6 months old from the date the doctor issued it when you first give it to us. 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.

However, your doctor may issue a conditional medical certificate for a lesser period, especially if you suffer from a medical condition that needs more regular assessment.

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

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.

As you’ll also need to get a medical assessment each year to keep your private driver licence, you can choose to align the expiry dates of your driver authorisation with your driver licence. This will mean that you’ll only need to have 1 medical assessment based on the commercial fitness to drive standards.

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

We’ve written to you asking for a new medical certificate

We can also ask you at any time to give us a new medical certificate if we reasonably suspect that you’re not medically fit to operate a public passenger 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

You must notify us of any permanent, or long term, mental or physical incapacity.

If you have a change to your medical condition that makes you continuously unfit to drive a public passenger vehicle for more than 1 month you must also notify us. Contact your local Translink Passenger Transport Office.