19/06/2023
Good afternoon, further information regarding Professional Driving Permits as received from Hollard.
Hello Hollard Broker
Making sure that our policyholders and brokers know and understand the requirements of our policy conditions is critical to ensuring a seamless and fair claims outcome.
We have received several disputes regarding the requirement and validity of Professional Driving Permits (PrDP) and the materiality thereof. Some policies are very specific in noting that the driver of the insured vehicle must be in possession of a PrDP, irrespective of whether on a private trip or not.
To address the varying views on this matter, we thought we would share the following regulatory requirements and the insurance implications regarding PrDPs:
1. Regulations issued in terms of the National Road Traffic Act 2006 require the following regarding professional driving permits (PrDP):
a. The applicant of the PrDP should already have a valid driver’s licence for the kind of PrDP they apply for.
b. PrDP will be issued for the below categories of motor vehicles (which are summarised):
· Goods vehicles with gross vehicle mass of more than 3 500 kg
· Breakdown vehicles
· Buses
· Minibuses (with gross vehicle mass of more than 3 500 kg, designed or adapted to transport 12 or more passengers, including the driver)
· Any motor vehicle which is being used to transport paying passengers.
· Any motor vehicle transporting 12 or more passengers, including the driver.
c. The owner or operator (including the person in control) of the types of motor vehicles stated above, to which a PrDP is a requirement, shall not employ nor allow a person who does not hold the valid PrDP to drive such motor vehicle. Also, the holder of the PrDP is not permitted to transfer the PrDP to another person (in other words it is “person specific” as would a driver’s license be in any event).
d. A cancelled or suspended PrDP becomes invalid and may not be used by the holder, regardless if it has not yet reached its expiry date.
e. Although the PrDP validity period (which is 24 months from the date of issue) may have expired, the PrDP shall remain valid for a further period of not more than four months on condition that:
· The holder of the PrDP has already applied for a new PrDP before the expiry date of the expired PrDP (there must be proof that such application has been made and all the required fees regarding the application have been duly paid)
· The PrDP or driver’s licence of the holder has not been suspended or cancelled
· The holder has not been notified that his/her new application for the PrDP is refused.
2. To verify the validity of the PrDP, the following sources are useful to conduct a check:
· TransUnion, for confirmation of the validity of South African PrDP’s. “Check you driver”, for confirmation of the validity of foreign PrDP’s. Please send an email to [email protected]
*It is to be noted that there may be a fee payable to the provider of the platform where the validation check is conducted.