Get a car driver licence — South Australia

A twelve-month learner period with 75 logged hours, and a choice between a government on-road test and competency based training with an instructor.

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

1492 days elapsed
longest dependent chain

9 discrete steps
across 1 bodies

2% waiting on availability
scheduling or queue, not assessment

365 days saved by concurrency
vs. 1857 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	28d	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.

28 of 1492 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 aged 17 to 24 and holds no prior driver licence.

#	Step	Who	Why it waits	Clock	Typical	Basis
1	Learner's theory test assessment Book and sit the road rules knowledge test. Usually same-day at a service centre.	Department for Infrastructure and Transport (SA)	applicant	—	1 published	Motor Vehicles Act 1959 (SA)
2	Learner licence issued registration Issued on passing the knowledge and eyesight tests. Minimum age 16. after Learner's theory test 1490d slack	Department for Infrastructure and Transport (SA)	assessment	—	1 published	—
3	Minimum learner's permit 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 1125d slack	—	statutory	365	365 published	Motor Vehicles Act 1959 (SA)
4	Log 75 supervised driving hours, including 15 at night application Accumulated by the applicant with a supervising driver and recorded in a logbook. after Learner licence issued 1125d slack	—	applicant	—	365 published	—
5	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's permit period (12 months), Log 75 supervised driving hours, including 15 at night 1097d slack	—	scheduling	—	28 estimate	—
6	Vehicle On Road Test, or competency based training assessment The applicant may sit a government on-road test, or complete competency based training and assessment with an accredited instructor instead. after Book and wait for a practical test appointment 1096d slack	Department for Infrastructure and Transport (SA)	assessment	—	1 published	—
7	P1 provisional period (12 months) decision A legislated minimum period on a restricted licence before progression. after Vehicle On Road Test, or competency based training 731d slack	—	statutory	365	365 published	Motor Vehicles Act 1959 (SA)
8	P2 provisional period (2 years) decision A legislated minimum period on a restricted licence before progression. after P1 provisional period (12 months) 1d slack	—	statutory	730	730 published	Motor Vehicles Act 1959 (SA)
9	Full (unrestricted) licence issued registration after P2 provisional period (2 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

sa-licensing (assessment) appears at Learner's theory test, Vehicle On Road Test, or competency based training. Could these be a single sign-off?

Sources

My Licence (Department for Infrastructure and Transport SA) published 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/sa-drivers-licence.toml and open a pull request, or send us the correction.