Driving as you age

It is your responsibility to regularly assess your fitness to drive. As you age, changes naturally occur that can affect your driving. You need to monitor your health and assess your own driving ability and make sensible decisions about when and where you should drive. This includes taking into consideration any:

• permanent or long-term injury or illness you have
• changes to your physical or mental condition (including conditions affecting eyesight or hearing), and
• other factors that could affect your ability to drive (such as certain medications).

If you’re concerned about your driving, you can also ask your doctor about any conditions you have and how they affect your driving.

Having a condition that affects your driving doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll lose your licence. Depending on your condition and how it affects your driving, you may:

• continue driving
• be required to have periodic medical assessments
• be required to undertake a driving assessment or occupational therapy driving assessment, or
• have conditions put on your licence (for example, only driving during the day).

Please refer to our information regarding driving with a physical disability and assessing your own fitness to drive for more information.

After you turn 65, you will still need to renew your driver licence when it expires. No renewal fee will apply and you only need to pay a small fee for the photo-card.

To renew your driver licence, please see Renewing your licence.

Most older drivers regulate their own driving by choosing when and where they should be driving. But some choose to continue to drive when it’s not safe to do so. If you’re concerned about a friend or family member’s ability to drive, you can speak to them about their driving. The Having the Conversation about Life Beyond Driving brochure may help with this conversation.

You can also confidentially notify us through our Third Party Notification (PDF) (WORD) form.

The Tasmanian Older Drivers Handbook is another valuable source of information for older drivers and their families. The handbook contains information on:

• driver licensing processes and tips to help you keep moving
• guidelines for assessing your own driving ability
• common medical conditions which affect driving, and
• planning ahead in case you need to give up driving.

You can buy a copy of the Tasmanian Older Drivers Handbook from Service Tasmania.