Who is regarded as “a professional driver”?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Arrive Alive website received an email requesting clarification on the term “professional driver”. The request reads as follows:

” Please can you clarify what is meant by the term professional driver? Your site states that the professional driver limit has been set at 0.02%. Is that for drivers in the transport industry such as taxi drivers or private road users. I work for Transnet and we test our train drivers before duty – do we use the 0.04% or 0.02%
Your feedback would be greatly appreciated”

This was referred for feedback – and a response received:

“The definition is “professional driver” means the driver of a motor vehicle referred to in section 32 of the Road Traffic Act;
Section 32 reads as follows:

32. Professional driver to have permit

32 (1) No person shall drive a motor vehicle of a prescribed class on a public road except in accordance with the conditions of a professional driving permit issued to him or her in accordance with this Chapter and unless he or she keeps such permit with him or her in the vehicle: Provided that this subsection shall not apply to the holder of a learner’s licence who drives such vehicle while he or she is accompanied by a person registered as a professional driver in respect of that class of vehicle.
(2) The—
(a) categories of;
(b) nature and extent of the authority granted by;
(c) period of validity of;
(d) form and content of;
(e) application for and issue of;
(f) suspension and cancellation of;
(g) incorporation in any other document of; and
(h) other necessary or expedient matters in relation to, professional driving permits, shall be as prescribed.
(3) (a) Any document issued by a competent authority in any prescribed territory and serving in that territory a purpose similar to that of a professional driving permit shall, subject to the conditions thereof and to such conditions as may be prescribed, be deemed to be a professional driving permit for the purposes of subsection (1).
(b) A public driving permit issued in terms of the Road Traffic Act, 1989 (Act No. 29 of 1989), or a road traffic law contemplated in paragraph 2 of Schedule 6 to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act No. 108 of 1996), shall, in accordance with the conditions thereof but subject to this Act, be deemed to be a professional driving permit for the purposes of this section for the period of validity of that public driving permit.

Please also find regulation 115 from the road traffic regulations below which describe which drivers should hold a professional driving permit.

115. Certain drivers of certain vehicles to hold professional driving permit

115. (1) Subject to the provisions of subregulation (2), a professional driving permit shall be held by the driver of—
(a) a goods vehicle, the gross vehicle mass of which exceeds 3 500 kilograms;
(b) a breakdown vehicle;
(c) a bus;
(d) a minibus—
(i) the gross vehicle mass of which exceeds 3 500 kilograms; or
(ii) which is designed or adapted for the conveyance of 12 or more persons, including the driver;
(e) a motor vehicle used for the conveyance of persons for reward or is operated in terms of a operating licence issued in accordance with the NLTTA;
(f) a motor vehicle the gross vehicle mass of which exceeds 3 500 kilograms to which regulations 273 to 283 apply as contemplated in regulation 274; and
(g) a motor vehicle conveying 12 or more persons including the driver.
(2) The provisions of subregulation (1) does not apply—
(a) to a traffic officer or examiner of vehicles in the performance of his or her duties as contemplated in sections 3I and 3G of the Act, respectively;
(b) to a person driving a hearse;
(c) to a person driving a motor vehicle referred to in regulation 21(1) or 21(5); [Specially classified vehicles: vintage, racing car, fire fighting, vehicles not designed to convey person or goods]
(d) subject to regulation 99(2), to a person driving a motor vehicle for which he or she holds a valid learner’s licence with the code prescribed for that vehicle in terms of regulation 99(1), while being accompanied by a person holding a valid professional driving permit which authorises him or her to drive that vehicle;
(e) to a person driving a tractor.