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I passed my driving test a month ago - can I drive on the motorway?

  • 14-11-2013 7:56pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 277 ✭✭


    Hello,

    I have passed my driving test about 4/5 weeks ago and still didn't get my licence. We, as a group of friends are planning to go to an open day in one of the colleges and the easiest and fastest route is via the motorway. My question is: Can I use it?

    Thanks,
    Kacper.


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 2,275 ✭✭✭mackerski


    kapisko1PL wrote: »
    Hello,

    I have passed my driving test about 4/5 weeks ago and still didn't get my licence. We, as a group of friends are planning to go to an open day in one of the colleges and the easiest and fastest route is via the motorway. My question is: Can I use it?

    Thanks,
    Kacper.

    Yes


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,822 ✭✭✭Morf


    mackerski wrote: »
    Yes

    Provided he/she carries the piece of paper indicating they have passed I'd imagine, yes?


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,645 ✭✭✭yer man!


    Open to correction here but aren't you only a fully licensed driver when you actually have your licence? you only have a cert to say you're competent, not fully licensed


  • Registered Users Posts: 594 ✭✭✭The_Pretender


    Once you have the reciept that you were given then you'll have no problems.


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,099 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    yer man! wrote: »
    Open to correction here but aren't you only a fully licensed driver when you actually have your licence? you only have a cert to say you're competent, not fully licensed

    Yes.
    Once you have the reciept that you were given then you'll have no problems.


    No (albeit you will probably get away with it)

    You have to have your physical pink licence to be allowed drive on a motorway, or unaccompanied, etc. The Certificate of Competency is definitely not valid and it is entirely at a Garda's own discretion as to whether to accept a licence payment receipt and a promise to present.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 594 ✭✭✭The_Pretender


    MYOB wrote: »
    Yes.




    No (albeit you will probably get away with it)

    You have to have your physical pink licence to be allowed drive on a motorway, or unaccompanied, etc. The Certificate of Competency is definitely not valid and it is entirely at a Garda's own discretion as to whether to accept a licence payment receipt and a promise to present.

    Open to correction on this, but isn't the Certificate of Competency the thing you get when you pass your test? I'm talking about the reciept you get in the tax office. When I got my learner permit I was told in the tax office that I was able to drive and just to bring the reciept with me. Could be wrong though, that's just what I thought.

    EDIT: Don't know what the story is if the forms were posted in though?


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,099 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Open to correction on this, but isn't the Certificate of Competency the thing you get when you pass your test? I'm talking about the reciept you get in the tax office. When I got my learner permit I was told in the tax office that I was able to drive and just to bring the reciept with me. Could be wrong though, that's just what I thought.

    EDIT: Don't know what the story is if the forms were posted in though?

    It is, but neither it nor the payment receipt are actually a driving licence. You're entirely relying on a Garda being in a good mood.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,752 ✭✭✭flyingsnail


    http://www.rsa.ie/en/RSA/Learner-Drivers/Safe-Driving1/Safety-for-Permit-Holders/
    Motorways:

    No driving on motorways even if you possess a certificate of competence.


  • Registered Users Posts: 424 ✭✭SimonLynch


    You're fine to drive I reckon, personally I'd take an experienced driver with me first time to advise on merging, lane discipline and so on, after that it's welcome to the jungle here.


  • Registered Users Posts: 277 ✭✭kapisko1PL


    Thanks for the great response lads.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 78,218 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    kapisko1PL wrote: »
    I have passed my driving test about 4/5 weeks ago and still didn't get my licence.
    Aren't you meant to exchange them within a month or something?


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,822 ✭✭✭Morf



    I imagine that is to "encourage" people to get their fully accredited license ASAP rather than a point of safety/ability.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,311 ✭✭✭Days 298


    Victor wrote: »
    Aren't you meant to exchange them within a month or something?

    IIRC the cert is valid for 2 years after which you have to retake the test.

    I think the OP has applied its just the processing times are ridiculous in some places.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,275 ✭✭✭mackerski



    That's completely mad, and is not at all how things were when I passed (years ago). So what act changed in the meantime?


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,787 ✭✭✭slimjimmc


    mackerski wrote: »
    That's completely mad, and is not at all how things were when I passed (years ago). So what act changed in the meantime?

    Nothing has changed afaik. I got my licence decades ago and a Certificate of Competency never entitled you to drive as if you had a licence even back then. Some people may have treated it as one though.

    One thing to note is that some insurance policies now include a clause that says no cover* is provided if you breach the terms of your learner permit or licence. If you legally don't have a licence then you remain on a learner permit.


    (* may not apply to compulsory 3rd party cover)


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,275 ✭✭✭mackerski


    slimjimmc wrote: »
    Nothing has changed afaik. I got my licence decades ago and a Certificate of Competency never entitled you to drive as if you had a licence even back then. Some people may have treated it as one though.

    That's exactly what a Certificate of Competency entitled you to do. Have a look at the SI of 1964

    The interesting bit is 19.5 (v):

    compliance with the provisions of clauses (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) of this paragraph shall not be necessary while the holder of the licence is driving a vehicle of a class in respect of which he holds a valid certificate of competency

    The referenced clauses are the ones that limit the scope of your right to drive, specifically your requirement to have an accompanying driver (or, for bikes, not to have one) and, as of 1964 anyway, the ban on hauling a trailer.

    So as of that date, when there were no motorways, the cert entitled you to drive just as a licensed driver would. When I passed my test, in the early '90s, it was very much understood that you didn't have to cash in the cert until your provisional licence was due to expire.

    The RSA site identifies 3 interesting restrictions on cert holders who have yet to convert it to a real licence:

    It's not valid outside the state. Fair enough - it never was in the old days either (how are you going to explain it to an unfamiliar plod abroad?)

    It doesn't entitle you to be a supervising driver for a learner nor does that clock start ticking on your "full licence record" until you have a real issued licence.

    Most interestingly, and the subject of the OP, the assertion that you may not use motorways until you have a real issued licence. If you know about the spirit of that SI of 1964 this is unintuitive, which is why I've been acting all surprised. So either the RSA is making stuff up (no comment...) or there really has been additional legislation since the 1964 SI to, for some reason, allow newly qualified drivers to do anything on the roads but "not do that" (a Meat Loaf clause, if you like).

    So I kept looking and found an SI from 2006.

    This one has basically the same provision as in 1964 (17.6(c)(i)). But again, the restrictions make no mention of motorways and this SI still talks about "Provisional Licences", something that has since been abolished. This SI does mention motorways, but in a context that's probably even more interesting than what I was looking for - it appears to prescribe "if possible" motorway (or similar) junction use as part of the test, which could be great fun (and very welcome).

    For now, this is where the trail runs cold for me. It's late and I want my bed. But so far I've established that, as recently as 2006, a combination of a provisional licence + certificate of competency was enough to allow you to exercise all freedoms of a full licence - with the possible exception of motorway driving. To find out the story with that will require identification of the law that prevents learners from using motorways in the first place (either as that law stands today or as it may have been in the past).


    Does anybody know?


  • Registered Users Posts: 327 ✭✭Tube


    Victor wrote: »
    Aren't you meant to exchange them within a month or something?

    My wife went nearly 2 years, and I (absent mindedly) went 7 or 8 months.


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,594 ✭✭✭✭Mrs OBumble


    So it's most likely that you MAY use motorways.

    But given that your driving instruction didn't cover them (most likely), and the test did not include them, then I'd say that it's most lkely that you cannot adequately use motorways at the moment.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,000 ✭✭✭mitosis


    So it's most likely that you MAY use motorways.

    But given that your driving instruction didn't cover them (most likely), and the test did not include them, then I'd say that it's most lkely that you cannot adequately use motorways at the moment.

    No. OP is not in possession of a license as required by law. Thus may not drive. But hey, he/she will anyway and most likely without repercussions.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,275 ✭✭✭mackerski


    mitosis wrote: »
    No. OP is not in possession of a license as required by law. Thus may not drive. But hey, he/she will anyway and most likely without repercussions.

    Your assertion is at odds with the legislation I posted above. So the only question is whether more recent legislation has changed things (and, if so, why?).


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