Practical Car Driving test in Queensland Australia

If you live in Queensland, Australia, this article would help you understand the car driving licensing requirements.

Types of Licenses

There are mainly 3 types of licenses

1. L plate (Learning) - You must be at least 16 year old. After getting license, you should display L plate and other person haing 1 year old open license should be supervising while you are driving.
2. P1/P2 plate (Provisional) - If you are less than 25 year old, you will need to apply for P1 license and then move on to P2. Age should be at least 17 and also you need to meet logbook requirements of 100 hours to apply for P1 license. When you are on P1 license, you should display red P plate. There are several restrictions on P1 license holders. To get open license or P2 license, you need to be on P1 license for at least 1 year. On P2, you do not have passenger restrictions and hands free mobile phone can be used.
3. Open - To apply for open license, you should be at least be 20 years old.

If you are a PR holder and have got overseas license and 25+ year old, you can convert your license to QLD license by giving below 2 tests. Below tests may be required for L/P1/P2 licenses as well. Rules keep changing so you are advised to contact TMR department for upto date information.

Paper based road rules test 

You can walk in to any TMR (Transport and mains road) office and appear for general road rules test. It will cost you around $27. You will be asked 30 multiple choice questions. 10 questions will be based on give way rules. You need to score 9/10 to clear the give way rules test. 20 questions will be based on general road rules and traffic signs. You need to score 18/20 to clear this test. So overall you need to score 27 out of 30 to clear the paper based test. You can take mock test at https://www.service.transport.qld.gov.au/practiceroadrulestest/public/Welcome.xhtml  

Booking a practical driving test and making payment

You can book a test on QLD TMR website. I paid $67 for the test fees. Test duration is 35 mins which includes approx. 25 mins of driving. I chose the Sherwood test center. But you can choose whichever center you like. There are several test centers in various suburbs in QLD.

Taking your own car for the test

You can give a test in your own car with below things in mind

1. Car should be registered
2. Car should be road worthy
3. Tyres should be in good condition especially tread depth
4. Car dashboard display should not have any red lights
5. Certain features should be turned off e.g. GPS, Speed alarms, Park Assist and Cameras
6. You must switch off your mobile phone upon arrival at the test cente

Car controls

Before actual driving test, examiner will check your knowledge about the various controls in the car like

1. Adjusting mirrors
2. Purpose of Sun visors
3. Rear view mirror and how to remove the glare of following vehicle lights 
4. Headlights - low beam and high beam and adjusting the level of beam 
5. Operation of hazard lights
6. Windscreen wiper and washer
7. Demister
8. Climate control system
9. Seat and steering wheel adjustment
10. Central door and window lock system
11. Any other special controls fitted to cars

Before you start driving 

1. Fasten the seat belt
2. See if all mirrors are adjusted properly
3. Start the engine in one shot
4. See that no red light is on dashboard display
5. Do head check and indicate then only start
6. Release the hand brake just before you are ready to move the car.
7. Ensure that you are not restarting the already running engine. See dashboard display for this.

Critical errors

All errors mentioned below are critical errors. All remaining errors come under non critical category.

1. Using Mobile phone while driving 
2. Not using Seat Belt
3. Stalling the car
4. Sudden braking
5. not using the hand brake properly
6. removing both hands off steering wheel
7. Not maintaining the correct road position
8. Driving over the speed limit [school zones, road work ahead sign]
9. Not having a rear view (through rear view mirror and by actually turning back) while reversing
10. not following road signs and not reading the time restrictions on the sign board
11. Entering the choked intersection
12. Not giving way to pedestrians 
13. Not leaving intersection (When you are turning right and you are in the middle of intersection and signal turns red).
14. Not Keeping a distance of 2 seconds from the vehicle that is ahead of you.
15. Not doing head checks including shoulder checks, left and right checks
16. Not making a good judgment when approaching the traffic signal (You must keep an eye on signals. If signal turns yellow and you are about to cross the intersection, keep moving ahead if other vehicle is following you. You need to apply brakes only when you can safely stop before the stop line and no one is following you)

Manoeuvres

1. Hill start - You should use hand brake and avoid roll back
2. Gear change using paddle shifters - Use paddle shifters to set the low gear when going down hill so that less braking is required
3. Reversing - You should not use indicators. Look back through rear window. You also need to give way. Car wheels should not touch the kerb side and should be parallel to the kerb side
4. Turn around (Left side street and right side street)  using 3 point turn - Mirror, indicator and shoulder check should be done. Do not forget to straighten wheels before each point. Also do not forget to give way.
5. Reverse parallel parking - Indicate left and slow down. Car must be 1 m away from other car. Do not forget to giveway. Turn the car to 45 degree to right and straighten wheel. Then reverse till door handle aligns with gutter/kerb. Then do parallel parking. Park so that you can see rego of car parked ahead of you.
6. Forward parking
7. Reverse Parking
8. U-turns - Indicate and do shoulder checks 
9. Car park forward

Some common errors

1. Not taking proper course during U-turn
2. Not positioning the vehicle properly 
3. Not scanning and observing at the railway level crossing and intersections
4. Not coming to a full stop at a stop sign  
5. Not waiting 5 seconds after indicating before pulling onto a road from a parked position
6. Not doing shoulder check (blind spot checks) during merging and changing lanes
7. Not indicating when leaving a roundabout 
8. Not following speed limits (driving too slow and too fast)
9. Not keeping safe distance
10. Not looking into side and rear mirror

Some important tips

1. It is always better to know the test route. So when choosing the test center, consult with your driving instructor about best center and the possible driving route. Have a driving feel of the route and suburb few days before the test day. 
2. Drive to left side of the road.
3. Hold steering wheel in 9-3 clock position.
4. Brake smoothly.
5. Keep safe distance from nearby cars, pedestrians etc.
6. Give way to pedestrains.
7. Keep looking ahead upto 100 meters for traffic signs and signals.
8. Indicate left or right when arrow marks are there. Keep indicating for at least 5 seconds. Stop the indicator as soon as you finish the turn.
9. Difference between single continuous and double continuous lines - With single continuous line, you can not overtake or do U turns. With double continuous line, you can not cross the line unless you have to pass the bicycle rider.
10. Take evasive action when other person makes mistake or confused.
11. Do not stop on the section of road with "Keep Clear" sign.
12. Driving test also includes below checks
13. T intersection give way rules
14. Cross roads rules
15. Merging rules
16. Round abouts rules
17. You should be able to give the demo of controls like wipers, washers, demisters, heat the mirrors
18. Road position - Keep your car to the left most side of road 
19. Keep safe following distance
20. Keep an eye on all signs like pedestrian crossing, stop, giveway, clearway sign etc
21. Road positioning should be good
22. Know all controls of car
23. Know how to use paddle shifters
24. In automatic car, do not use left foot at all...Use right foot only
25. Road and lane positioning should be accurate
26. You should use handbrake when you want to park the park and also when you do uphill start.
27. At school zones, you need to drive at 40 km/h during specified time but only when the school term is on. On public holidays and when school is out of term, you can drive at 60 km/h

If you need any help for getting a license, write to me at reply2sagar@gmail.com for any queries. I live in Brisbane QLD.
What do you think on this topic? Please express your opinion or ask any question through comment below. You can write to me at reply2sagar@gmail.com