Getting Your Driver's Licence: The Learner's Test, Lessons and the K53 Driving Test in South Africa

The one thing

A licence is a route, not a single test. Plan the whole route, with dates and money, before you book anything. Most people who give up on their licence do not fail because they cannot learn to drive. They run out of money for lessons, let their learner’s licence expire, or book a test long before they are ready. A plan avoids all three. §1.3 maps the route, §1.5 builds the budget, and §1.6 puts it together.

Why a Licence Matters

A driver’s licence is one of the most useful documents a young South African can have. Many job advertisements ask for “a valid Code B licence” or “Code 10 and a PrDP”, even for work that is not mainly driving. A licence lets you drive yourself to work, fetch children, help a sick relative at night and travel where taxis do not go. It is also the law. Driving on a public road without a valid licence for that vehicle is an offence, and so is letting someone drive your car when you know they have no licence. If you crash while unlicensed, your insurer may refuse to pay, and you may be held personally responsible for the damage. Most important of all, the licence is meant to prove that you can drive safely. South Africa’s roads are among the most dangerous in the world for their number of vehicles. Every year thousands of people are killed in crashes, many of them young. Learning properly, and not taking short cuts, is the best protection you can give yourself and the people you will one day carry.

Worked Example 1.1 — Three reasons, three routes

Masego Phalatse is 19 and has just finished matric in Kimberley. She wants her licence because the jobs she is applying for, at a pharmacy chain’s delivery depot and a call centre on the edge of town, both ask for one, and because her mother works night shifts and needs lifts. Lwando Majola is 31 and works as a general worker at a building supplier in Kokstad. He has had a Code B licence for ten years. His manager has offered him a delivery driver’s job on a 7-tonne truck, if he gets the right licence and a permit. Nazeema Salie is 46 and a school secretary in eMalahleni. She has relied on lifts all her life. Her husband’s new job is far away, and she is tired of waiting for others. Her son Riyaad, 17, wants his learner’s licence too.

The lesson: the reasons differ, and so does the route. Masego needs the whole route from the start; Lwando needs a higher code and a permit; Nazeema needs confidence as much as skill.

The Licence Codes

A licence is not just “a licence”. It shows codes for the kinds of vehicle you may drive. People still use the old names, so you need to know both. Learner’s licence codes (you choose one when you book the learner’s test):

• Code 1 — motorcycles (with lower minimum ages for small motorcycles);
• Code 2 — light motor vehicles, such as cars and bakkies (from 17);
• Code 3 — heavy motor vehicles (from 18).

Driving licence codes (on your card once you pass the driving test):

• A1 and A — motorcycles (A1 for small motorcycles, A for any motorcycle);
• B — light motor vehicles up to 3 500 kg, such as cars, small bakkies and minibuses that are light enough; people still call this “Code 08” or “Code 8”;
• EB — a light motor vehicle pulling a heavy trailer;
• C1 — vehicles from 3 500 kg to 16 000 kg, such as small trucks; the old “Code 10”;
• C — vehicles over 16 000 kg;
• EC1 and EC — heavy vehicles with trailers, including articulated trucks; the old “Code 14”.

The minimum age for a driving licence for a car (Code B) is 18. A higher code usually lets you drive the lower ones too: a C1 licence covers Code B vehicles, for example. If you take the driving test in a car with an automatic gearbox, your licence will carry a restriction: you may drive automatic vehicles only.

Most readers of this book want Code B. If your work needs a truck licence, it is usually best to get Code B first, gain some experience, and then upgrade (Chapter 10).

The Route, Step by Step

Here is the route for a first licence:

1. Book the learner’s licence test at a driving licence testing centre (DLTC), in person or through the national online booking service where it is available (Chapter 2).
2. Study the rules of the road, the road signs and markings, and the vehicle controls.
3. Write the learner’s test and pass every section. You get your learner’s licence, valid for 24 months.
4. Learn to drive, with a registered instructor, a licensed family member, or both (Chapter 6), using the K53 method (Chapter 7).
5. Book the driving test while your learner’s licence is still valid, leaving yourself enough time to practise.
6. Take the K53 driving test: the pre-trip check, the yard test and the road test (Chapters 8 and 9).
7. Apply for your driving licence card at the testing centre straight after you pass, and buy a temporary driving licence if you need to drive before the card arrives.
8. Collect your card. It must be renewed every five years (Chapter 10).

Two things trip people up. First, the 24 months of a learner’s licence pass quickly, especially if lessons stop when money runs out. If it expires, you must write the learner’s test again. Second, the driving test is often booked weeks or months ahead, so book it once you can see the end of your lessons, not when you start.

How Long It Takes

There is no fixed time, but a realistic plan for a beginner looks like this:

• Booking and studying for the learner’s test: two to six weeks, depending on how soon the testing centre has a date and how quickly you learn.
• Learning to drive: most beginners need somewhere between 10 and 25 hours of lessons with an instructor, plus as much supervised practice as they can get. Someone who has never sat behind a wheel needs more; someone who has practised for months with a parent may need fewer.
• Waiting for a driving test date: from a week or two to a few months, depending on where you live.
• Waiting for the card: usually several weeks after you pass.

What slows people down:

• Money: lessons stop and start, and skills fade between them;
• No practice car, or no licensed person to sit beside them;
• Booking delays at busy testing centres;
• Booking the test too early, failing, and waiting for another date;
• Nerves — very common, and very treatable (Chapter 9).

Worked Example 1.2 — Nazeema’s timeline

Nazeema plans backwards from the school holidays in July, when she will have time for lessons. She books her learner’s test for February, giving herself three weeks to study. She plans 20 lessons from March to June, two a week, because she has never driven, and practice on Sundays in the school car park with her brother-in-law. She will book her driving test in May, for a date in late June. Her learner’s licence will be valid until February two years later, so even if she fails the first test she has time for more lessons and another try.

The lesson: count backwards from the date you need the licence, and leave room for a second attempt.