The Short Answer
Two things about your past are looked at.
A conviction for drink driving, drug driving, refusing a test or dangerous driving in the last five years. That rules a work licence out. The magistrate cannot grant one, however badly you need it.
Losing your licence in the last five years. This one depends on why you lost it. Some reasons count against you. Most of the common ones are ignored.
The second question is the one people get wrong about themselves.
Find Your Situation
| Suspended because you hadn't paid fines or infringement notices | Doesn't count |
|---|---|
| They took your licence for 24 hours at the roadside after you blew over | Doesn't count |
| Suspended because you didn't turn up to court on a drink driving charge | Doesn't count |
| Suspended because of a medical condition or a disability | Doesn't count |
| You appealed a suspension and won | Doesn't count |
| You went to court over a suspension and got a special hardship order | Doesn't count |
| Something to do with a taxi, rideshare or bus driver authority | Doesn't count |
| A magistrate disqualified you, or your licence was cancelled after a court case | This one counts against you |
"I Was Suspended Over Unpaid Fines"
That suspension is ignored. It has nothing to do with how you drive. You owed money, the licence was switched off until the debt was dealt with, and the law leaves that kind of suspension out of the five-year question.
How long it ran and how recent it was make no difference. If unpaid fines are the only thing on your record, you are not ruled out.
"I Got Done For Drink Driving a Few Years Back"
A conviction for drink driving, drug driving, refusing a roadside test or dangerous driving within five years before your new conviction rules out a work licence. There is no hardship exception and nothing to argue.
We say that plainly because the alternative is paying for affidavits and employer letters on an application that cannot succeed. If that is your position, the useful work is set out further down this page.
Check the dates first. Five years is longer than most people remember, and the window is measured from a court date rather than from today.
The Five Years Is Measured From Your Court Date
Not five years back from today, and not from the night you were pulled over. It runs back from the day you are convicted of the new charge.
Usually that is a few weeks after being charged and it changes nothing. Adjournments and police briefs stretch it out. Where an old conviction sits close to the five-year mark, those weeks decide the application.
An example. You were convicted in July 2021 and charged again this month. If the new matter finishes in September, the gap is more than five years and the old conviction does not block you. Finished earlier, it can fall inside five years. This is one of the few parts of your history that can still be worked with, and only if it is picked up before your court date.
"I Lost My Licence For Something Else Entirely"
A disqualification for driving unlicensed, or for a serious speeding matter, still counts. Alcohol has nothing to do with it. Any disqualification ordered by a court counts against you unless it is one of the kinds listed in the table above.
If the earlier matter was dangerous driving, it also lands on the list of convictions that rule out a work licence outright.
Get Your Traffic History First
Everything here turns on what happened to your licence and when. Your traffic history, ordered from Transport and Main Roads, settles it.
It lists every suspension, cancellation and disqualification, with the date and the reason for each. The reason decides whether it counts.
Bring that, any old court paperwork showing when you were sentenced, and your paperwork for the current charge. Records often read differently from memory: a forgotten matter appears, or a suspension remembered as a fines suspension turns out to be a disqualification. Better found in an office than in a courtroom.
The Application Happens On the Day, Once
A work licence has to be asked for at the same hearing where you are convicted and disqualified. The Act allows it then "and not otherwise". There is no coming back next month with a better application.
Walk into court unprepared and get disqualified, and you are off the road for the whole period even if you would have qualified.
If the Answer Is No
Both bars only operate once you are convicted. So the first question becomes whether you should be pleading guilty at all. Was the reading taken properly? Were you driving? Were you in charge of the vehicle? If the charge is arguable, the work is stopping the disqualification, not applying for a licence around it.
If the charge is solid, the work moves to the disqualification: how long it runs, keeping it at the shorter end, knowing the date you get your licence back, and whether an interlock will be fitted to your car. Every month off the road costs money.
Know where the line is while you are disqualified. Driving during a disqualification turns a hard few months into a much longer one. It happens most often to people who never got a straight answer about what they were allowed to do.
Two Situations, Side by Side
Both examples are invented. Both are common.
An electrician from Edmonton, 0.12 on a Saturday night. Open licence. Two years ago he was suspended for a few months over unpaid fines. Nothing else on his history, and he was not working when he was pulled over. The fines suspension is ignored. So is the suspension that came with being charged, because that applies automatically at that reading. He has no earlier driving convictions. He can apply, and his work is proving he would lose his livelihood without a licence. An interlock goes in his car when the disqualification ends.
A truck driver from Gordonvale, same reading, same night. Open licence as well. Three years ago a magistrate disqualified him for driving unlicensed. No alcohol involved. That disqualification counts, so a work licence is not available to him. Had he waited and found out on the morning of court, he would have paid for an application that could not succeed. Knowing beforehand, he can test whether the charge is defensible and organise how the household manages while he is off the road.
One line on a printout separates the two.
What We'll Ask You On the Phone
- What are you charged with, and what was the reading? Both are on your paperwork.
- Have you lost your licence in the last five years, and do you know why?
- Have you been to court over driving before, and roughly when were you sentenced?
- Were you working, or driving for work, when you were pulled over?
Those four answers usually settle whether an application is worth pursuing. Where they are unclear, get your traffic history before you spend anything.
How We Help With This
The work starts with reading your record properly, before anyone spends money.
We go through your traffic history line by line, sort each old suspension into the category the Act puts it in, check the conviction dates against the five-year window, and tell you whether a work licence is available to you. If it is, the application work starts from there. If it is not, you have time to plan around being off the road instead of hearing it in the dock.
Your history is not the only way people are ruled out. Some current charges rule you out on their own — a learner or P-plate driver charged over alcohol, or a driver who was working at the time. Those are covered on our main work licence page.
Where This Comes From
Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995 (Qld), s 87(5)(b) — An application must not be granted if the applicant's provisional or open licence has been suspended or cancelled, or the applicant has been disqualified from holding or obtaining a Queensland driver licence, within 5 years before the application is made.
Same Act, s 87(5B) — Sets out what that reference does not include: a suspension, cancellation or disqualification set aside on a review or appeal; one because of the applicant's mental or physical disability; a suspension under the State Penalties Enforcement Act 1999 or the Transport Operations (Passenger Transport) Act 1994; a suspension under s 79(9) (failure to appear); where the disqualification applied for is for an offence against s 79(1F), a s 79B suspension resulting from being charged with that offence; a 24 hour suspension under s 80(22AA); and a suspension for which a court has made a special hardship order.
Same Act, s 87(5)(c) — An application must not be granted where the applicant has previously been convicted under s 79 or s 80(5A) of the Act, or s 328A of the Criminal Code, or of an equivalent offence outside Queensland, within 5 years before the conviction that results in the disqualification the application relates to.
Same Act, s 87(2) and (3) — The application may only be made, and the order only made, at the proceedings in which the conviction is recorded and in conjunction with the disqualification order, "and not otherwise".
Same Act, s 87(5)(a) — Separately, the applicant must satisfy the court they are a fit and proper person to hold a restricted licence and that refusal would cause extreme hardship by depriving them of their means of earning a living. Section 87(5A) requires an employer's affidavit if the applicant is not self-employed.
Same Act, s 80(5A) — Failing to provide a specimen of breath for a breath test, or saliva for a saliva test, when required by a police officer, subject to the exceptions in s 80(5B).
Same Act, s 150(1A) — Provides for special hardship orders: court orders allowing a person whose licence has been suspended to keep driving in stated circumstances. A separate scheme from restricted (work) licences.
Criminal Code (Qld), s 328A — Dangerous operation of a vehicle.
Every provision above was read in full from the current in-force text of the Act on legislation.qld.gov.au on 31 August 2026, and re-checked on 1 September 2026 against Carter's Criminal Law of Queensland (LexisNexis), current to Act 13 of 2026.