Get a car driver licence — Australian Capital Territory

The only pathway in the country where a novice driver can avoid the government practical test entirely, by being assessed against 23 competencies by an accredited instructor.

personal-licensingClass C (car) licence, applicant under 25, no prior licence draft compare across jurisdictions

1485 days elapsed
longest dependent chain

9 discrete steps
across 1 bodies

1% waiting on availability
scheduling or queue, not assessment

366 days saved by concurrency
vs. 1851 if run end-to-end

Where the time goes

Critical-path days only. Steps that run alongside others are real work but do not lengthen the process, so counting them here would overstate the prize.

statutory	1460d	A legislated period that must elapse regardless of readiness.
scheduling	21d	Waiting for a person or committee to become available.
assessment	3d	Someone is genuinely evaluating the merits.
applicant	1d	Waiting on the applicant to supply or fix something.

21 of 1485 elapsed days are spent waiting for a person or a meeting rather than for a judgement to be formed. Removing that time changes no assessment standard and lowers no bar -- it is the cost of scheduling alone.

The process, step by step

Applies when: Applicant is under 25 and holds no prior driver licence.

#	Step	Who	Why it waits	Clock	Typical	Basis
1	Road rules knowledge test assessment Book and sit the road rules knowledge test. Usually same-day at a service centre.	Access Canberra	applicant	—	1 published	Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Act 1999 (ACT)
2	Learner licence issued registration Issued on passing the knowledge and eyesight tests. Minimum age 16. after Road rules knowledge test 1483d slack	Access Canberra	assessment	—	1 published	—
3	Minimum learner licence period (12 months) decision A legislated period that must elapse before the practical test, regardless of how ready the applicant is. after Learner licence issued 1118d slack	—	statutory	365	365 published	Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Act 1999 (ACT)
4	Log 100 supervised driving hours, including 10 at night application Accumulated by the applicant with a supervising driver and recorded in a logbook. after Learner licence issued 1118d slack	—	applicant	—	365 published	—
5	Hazard Perception Test assessment A computer-based test of the ability to recognise developing hazards. Increasingly available online. after Learner licence issued 1482d slack	Access Canberra	applicant	—	1 published	—
6	Book and wait for a practical test appointment application The applicant is ready and the file is complete. What remains is waiting for an examiner appointment. after Minimum learner licence period (12 months), Log 100 supervised driving hours, including 10 at night, Hazard Perception Test 1097d slack	—	scheduling	—	21 estimate	—
7	Competency based training and assessment, or a government driving test assessment CBT&A assesses 23 competencies across a minimum of 7 lessons with an accredited instructor, with no separate government test. The alternative is a one-off assessment with an ACT Government licence examiner. after Book and wait for a practical test appointment 1096d slack	Access Canberra	assessment	—	1 published	—
8	Provisional licence period (3 years) decision A legislated minimum period on a restricted licence before progression. after Competency based training and assessment, or a government driving test 1d slack	—	statutory	1095	1095 published	Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Act 1999 (ACT)
9	Full (unrestricted) licence issued registration after Provisional licence period (3 years)	—	assessment	—	1 published	—

on the critical path scheduling/queue = delay not caused by the assessment itself

Machine-flagged questions

These are produced automatically from the dependency graph. They are questions for a practitioner, not findings. Each one needs a person who has run this process to say whether the constraint is real.

The same body asked more than once

act-licensing (assessment) appears at Road rules knowledge test, Hazard Perception Test, Competency based training and assessment, or a government driving test. Could these be a single sign-off?

Sources

Access Canberra published provisional driver licence requirements

Something wrong here?

This page is wrong in some way -- every page like it is. If you have run this process, the most useful thing you can do is tell us which step took longer than we say and why. Edit data/processes/act-drivers-licence.toml and open a pull request, or send us the correction.