PTD FAQs

In July 2020, passenger transport driver (PTD) authorisations were introduced – these replaced F (charter and bus) and T (taxi) driver’s licence extensions that permit someone to drive for hire or reward. 

A PTD authorisation is an annual authorisation that must be renewed every year. F and T extensions were previously issued with no expiry date and remained valid, provided that the holder continued to meet the fit and proper requirements.

Unlike F or T extensions, a PTD authorisation is not specific to a type of passenger transport. It enables you to drive any authorised passenger transport vehicle relevant to the licence class on your driver’s licence.

F and T extension holders who have submitted a PTD authorisation application by 11.59pm, Wednesday 30 June 2021 can continue operating using their extension until either their application is finalised, or Monday 31 January 2022 (whichever is first).   

You can apply for a PTD authorisation if you: 

• are aged 20 years old or more; and 
• hold a current and valid WA drivers licence; and
• have held a driver’s licence (or an equivalent driving authorisation from another jurisdiction) for a period of 3 years; and
• have not been disqualified from holding or obtaining a PTD authorisation.

Applications for PTD authorisations can only be made through DoTDirect.

Before you apply for a PTD authorisation you should: 

• check that you meet the eligibility criteria for applying for a PTD authorisation;
• get a DoTDirect account if you don’t already have one;
• apply for a National Police Clearance (it’s quicker to do this online!) – it will need to be less than 3 months old when you apply for a PTD authorisation; and
• if you’ve received a medical renewal letter from DoT recently, you’ll need to complete this to ensure your medical record is up-to-date.  

Read How to apply for a PTD authorisation for more information.

You must apply for and be granted a PTD authorisation before you start driving a for hire or reward. 

If you hold an F or T extension, you must have applied for a PTD authorisation by 11.59pm, Wednesday 30 June 2021 to continue driving for hire or reward. F and T extension holders who submitted a PTD authorisation application before  this date can continue operating using their extension until either their application is finalised, or Monday 31 January 2022 (whichever is first). 

If you had not applied for or been granted a PTD authorisation by 11.59pm, Wednesday 30 June 2021, your F or T extension has now ceased. You are unable to drive for hire or reward until you are granted a PTD authorisation. 

During this transition period, the authorisation to drive for hire or reward comprises:

• PTD authorisation;
• F extension (with PTD authorisation application being finalised); or
• T extension (with PTD authorisation application being finalised). 

Authorised on-demand booking services (ODBSs) can use the Driver and Vehicle Industry Dashboard (DVID) to check if their drivers are authorised to drive for hire or reward.

The DVID driver report will tell an ODBS if a driver:

• has a valid driver’s licence; 
• is authorised to drive for hire or reward; and
• has either:
  • a PTD authorisation; or 
  • a pending PTD authorisation application while also holding a valid F or T extension. 

The DVID is updated with accurate information multiple times each day. You can use these insights to inform your business planning and driver on-boarding processes. 

Visit On-demand transport industry portals for more information about using the DVID, including the DVID user guide.

School travel is generally considered for hire or reward as the transport is often part of the school’s offering (i.e. while not paid directly by school students, it is part of the school fees or other remuneration the school gets for its services).

People are only considered to be driving for hire or reward if the driving is more than an incidental part of their general employment duties. It is not related to how frequently the driving might occur.

As an employee of the Department of Education or a school, you will need to discuss with management or the relevant section as to whether your specific job as a teacher, education support or general staff member has driving for school purposes as a main part of its duties. If your main role is to teach, it is likely a PTD authorisation will not be required.

For example, a teacher’s main duty is to teach students. Any duties other than teaching (including driving students) would be considered incidental, regardless of the frequency the duty occurs. 

The person driving would still need to have the appropriate class of driver’s licence for any vehicles they drive (for example, Light Rigid (LR), Medium Rigid (MR) or Heavy Rigid (HR) for larger vehicles).

You are not considered to be driving for hire or reward if you are driving as an unpaid volunteer and:

• driving passengers is an incidental part of your volunteer work, or
• the vehicle is being driven to provide a community transport service. 

If you are employed by the Department of Justice (DoJ) and transfer prisoners as part of your role, you are carrying out DoJ’s statutory functions. The transport is not considered for hire or reward and a PTD authorisation is not needed.

If you are employed under a contract arrangement to transport prisoners, this transport is considered for hire or reward as the contracted organisation is receiving “reward” from DoJ for delivering the service. Contracted drivers will require a PTD authorisation. 

Read Am I driving for hire or reward for further information. 

There are two costs associated with a PTD authorisation:

• an initial $43.00 application fee, when a driver first applies for a PTD authorisation; and
• an annual $94.00 authorisation fee. 

The application fee is only payable when you first apply for a PTD authorisation. If you renew your authorisation before it expires you will only need to pay the annual authorisation fee in subsequent years. If you do not renew your PTD authorisation by the renewal date and allow it to lapse, you will need to pay the application and authorisation fees to apply for a new PTD authorisation. 

The annual PTD authorisation fee will recover the cost of the ongoing monitoring of drivers’ suitability to drive a vehicle for hire or reward – previously this cost has been covered by the taxpayer. 

WA Police and Department of Justice shares data with DoT that allows us to monitor convictions and charges against people authorised to drive for hire or reward. With the introduction of PTD authorisations, the cost of maintaining public safety will be met by the passenger transport industry. Previously, this cost was borne by the taxpayer.

F and T extension holders who submitted a PTD authorisation application by 11:59pm, Wednesday 30 June 2021 can continue operating until either their application is finalised, or Monday 31 January 2022 (whichever is first). 

If you have not applied for or been granted a PTD authorisation by 11.59pm, Wednesday 30 June 2021, your F or T extension has now ceased. You are unable to drive for hire or reward until you are granted a PTD authorisation.

New rules for the passenger transport industry came into effect in mid-2020 and set criteria for a person to be granted a PTD authorisation that are different to that of an F or T extension. This includes a number of criminal offences that will automatically disqualify a person from being able to hold a PTD authorisation, either permanently or for periods of up to one, five or ten years. 

All F and T extension holders need to be re-assessed against these driver disqualification offences, as part of a new application for PTD authorisation.

Read Driver disqualification offences for more information.

Everyone must supply a National Police Certificate (NPC) as part of their PTD application in DoTDirect – you will not be able to complete your application if you do not supply an NPC. 

When you submit your application for a PTD authorisation, your NPC must be less than 3 months old (from date of issue). 

If you’ve submitted an NPC to DoT recently for another purpose – such as an application for an on-demand booking service authorisation – you may resubmit the same NPC as part of your application for PTD authorisation, providing it’s less than 3 months old when you apply. 

If you’ve received a medical renewal letter from DoT recently, you’ll need to complete this to ensure your medical record is up-to-date.  

If you haven’t recently received a medical renewal letter from DoT, your medical assessment should still be valid and you will not be required to submit a new medical assessment when you apply for a PTD authorisation. 

To maintain a PTD authorisation, you will need to supply DoT with a medical assessment and NPC every five years, unless DoT ask you to provide these more often.

You will be able to see the next due dates for your medical and NPC on your PTD authorisation document and in DoTDirect when you view your PTD authorisation details.

Online providers are quicker than applying in-person, and it costs approximately $45 to apply for a NPC online.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission has a list of all accredited organisations that can supply a NPC for you. Check out your chosen provider’s website to make sure they provide services to the general public.

The NPC lists an individual's disclosable court outcomes and pending charges sourced from the databases of all Australian police jurisdictions. DoT needs this information to be able to assess whether you are a fit and proper person to drive passengers – this is one way DoT is working to ensure the safety of the passenger transport industry.

The WA Police have an informative FAQs about National Police Certificates.

Disqualification offences are certain safety and criminal offences that are more serious in nature and may disqualify a person from holding a PTD authorisation. Visit Driver disqualification offences for a full list of offences and disqualification periods. 

If you have been charged or convicted of a disqualification offence, this will impact how DoT will assess your application for a PTD authorisation. 

The impact on your application for PTD authorisation will be determined by:

• the type of disqualification offence; and
• whether you have been charged or convicted.

If you have been charged with a disqualification offence, your application for a PTD authorisation may be refused. Your application may also be refused if you are assessed as not a fit and proper person.

If you have been convicted of a disqualification offence, your application for PTD authorisation must be refused unless:

• the conviction has been quashed or set aside; and/or
• the disqualification period for the offence has passed since the conviction.

Having a conviction declared spent means you can limit the disclosure of a conviction. For example, a conviction which has been spent is not listed on a NPC. 

If a conviction is considered spent, you are not obliged to disclose any details of that conviction and any questions concerning your criminal history can only refer to any convictions which are not spent.

When you apply for a NPC, it also includes an application to spend eligible convictions. If you are applying for an NPC, there is no need to apply separately for a spent conviction.

The WA Police have the most up to date information on ways to apply for a spent conviction. Please visit the WA Police Spent Conviction FAQs for further information.

When you submit your application for a PTD authorisation it must be assessed by DoT – your PTD authorisation will not be immediately granted. 

The time it takes DoT to assess an application varies. While we endeavour to complete all applications in a timely manner, there is no set assessment period due to a number of factors, including:

• the complexity of the application;
• lack of required information provided by applicants or health professionals; and
• further information requiring follow-up.

Once all the relevant documents have been submitted and your application is assessed by DoT, you will receive an email notifying you that the outcome of your assessment is ready to view in DoTDirect.

Make sure you check your email junk/spam folder as important emails sometimes get categorised incorrectly as junk. To avoid this, you can add @transport.wa.gov.au to your safe senders list.

You will receive an email from DoT to notify you of the assessment outcome of your PTD authorisation application.  

Make sure you check your email junk/spam folder as important emails sometimes get categorised incorrectly as junk. To avoid this, you can add @transport.wa.gov.au to your safe senders list.

If your application is successful, you will be required to pay a 12-month authorisation fee ($94.00). 

When you sign into your DoTDirect account, you will also be able to see the stage that your application is at by clicking on ‘Passenger Transport Drivers’ in the top navigation bar. 

Your PTD authorisation will be emailed to you as a separate PDF document – you can print this out if you wish. 

You will not need to get a new driver’s licence card, even if you held an F or T extension (and it was noted on your driver’s licence card) prior to the introduction of PTD authorisations.

Authorised ODBSs can access the Driver and Vehicle Industry Dashboard (DVID) to check if the drivers and vehicles that they dispatch jobs to are appropriately authorised. 

Your on-demand booking service or employer may also ask you to provide proof of your authorisation. Visit How to view, renew or surrender a PTD authorisation for more information.

No, you do not have to display the PTD authorisation document in your vehicle. However, you will need to display driver identity information if you are driving an on-demand charter or on-demand rank or hail (taxi) passenger transport vehicle.  

The Transport (Road Passenger Services) Act 2018 states that drivers of on-demand charter and on-demand rank or hail (taxi) passenger transport vehicles are required to have driver identity information that is visible to the hirer at the time of booking, or display it in the vehicle/on person.

Your on-demand booking service can assist you to understand and meet these requirements. 

Yes. If you are currently driving an on-demand charter (OD-C) or on-demand rank or hail (OD-RH) passenger transport vehicle, you are required to provide hirers with driver identity information. 

Read Driver identification for more information.

These requirements do not apply to drivers for regular passenger transport, tourism passenger transport, community or courtesy services.

Yes, DoT will continue to produce ID cards for drivers doing on-demand rank or hail (taxi) work. There is currently no cost for a taxi ID card to be created by DoT.

Please note: it is not a requirement for passenger transport drivers to obtain a DoT-issued card. Drivers or on-demand booking service may create their own driver ID document. 

Visit Driver identification to find out how to apply.

It is a legal requirement for drivers of on-demand charter and on-demand rank or hail (taxi) vehicles to display driver ID information while driving for hire or reward.

If you’re waiting for DoT to make you a card, you can still display a document provided by your on-demand booking service, as long as it meets the requirements of the regulations.

PTD authorisations are valid for 12 months from the date of issue. The date of issue will be recorded on your PTD authorisation document.

DoTDirect will display when you need to renew your licence, registration and PTD authorisation. DoT will also email you a renewal notice 6 weeks before your PTD authorisation is due to expire. 

Visit How to view, renew or surrender a PTD authorisation for more information.

You will need to renew your PTD authorisation via DoTDirect. If you do not renew your PTD authorisation before it expires your authorisation will not be in force until the new annual fee is paid. This can be up to 6 months after the expiry.

If you wish to continue to operate as a passenger transport driver outside of this 6 months, you will need to make a new application and the application and authorisation fees will need to be paid again. 

A new NPC and commercial driver medical report will be required to be submitted to DoT every 5 years, unless DoT becomes aware of an issue that may require either one of these documents to be provided at an earlier time. 

Visit How to view, renew or surrender a PTD authorisation for more information.