Govt Relaxes Experience Requirement for Driving Licenses

The government has repeatedly relaxed the experience requirement for driving licenses for heavy and medium vehicles in response to demands from transport leaders. In continuation of this, the condition has been relaxed again. On December 19, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) issued a notification.

According to a statement issued by Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), the number of drivers with heavy and medium quality driving licenses in the country is insufficient due to the insufficient number of drivers with heavy and medium quality driving licenses. The government has taken this decision in the interest of maintaining the normal movement of motor vehicles. This decision will take effect immediately and will last until June 2022.

Note that the conditions of experience to get a driving license have been relaxed from time to time. Even at the beginning of the last year, the government once relaxed the condition of adding the medium or heavy motor vehicles to the driving license till June 30.

Meanwhile, research by BUET's Accident Research Institute (ARI) has found that the involvement of heavy vehicles in road accidents is increasing. Researchers say that one of the reasons for the increase in the relaxation of the conditions of experience is to get a driving license.

Professor Hadiuzzaman, director of ARI, citing their research, said that about 49 per cent of pedestrians and 59 per cent of pedestrians died in road accidents due to heavy vehicles.

Professor Hadiuzzaman said the relaxation would increase the risk of road accidents, as drivers with a medium vehicle license and only one year of experience could get a heavy vehicle license. However, he said that only a skilled and experienced driver should get a license for heavy vehicles.

He added that the involvement of heavy vehicles in road accidents has increased to 44.5 percent in 2020 from 43 percent in 2019. One of the reasons for this increase is the relaxation of heavy vehicle licensing conditions.

As a rule, a driver must have three years of experience, including a light vehicle license, to apply for a license to drive a medium-sized vehicle. Then three more years after getting a license to drive a medium-sized vehicle, the driver can apply for a heavy vehicle license, which includes buses and trucks.

However, according to the relaxed requirements, light-vehicle drivers can apply for a medium-vehicle driving license if they have a professional license and one year of experience. Medium vehicle driving license holders can apply for a heavy vehicle driving license if they have a similar experience.

Also, those who have professional driving licenses and one year of experience in light vehicles will now be able to drive medium vehicles till June 2022. Similarly, those who have a professional driving license for medium vehicles will be able to drive heavy vehicles up to this date.

One of the main demands of transport workers was to relax the need for heavy vehicle licensing experience when they went on strike in November 2019 to protest the implementation of the Road Transport Act-2018.

They made the demands as the new law provides for harsher penalties for driving heavy vehicles, including light vehicle licenses, a very common occurrence in the country's road transport sector.

In August 2018, the government relaxed the requirement for heavy and medium-sized vehicle driving licenses. After that, the government extended the term more than once.