Demerit points

All licence holders start with zero demerit points. As a licence holder commits an offence that has a demerit point penalty, points are added to their driving record.

• The first trial started on 17 January 2023 and finished on 16 January 2024.
• The second trial started on 17 January 2024 and finished on 16 January 2025.
• The third trial started on 17 January 2025 and will finish on 31 January 2026.

• Eligible drivers who remained offence-free during the trial periods (17 January 2023 to 16 January 2024,17 January 2024 to 16 January 2025, and 17 January 2025 to 31 January 2026) will have one demerit point removed from their record after each 12-month period. 
• Transport for NSW (Transport) is reviewing the records following the second trial period. The demerit point deduction processing will take approximately 10 months to complete. A similar process will occur and the end of the third trial period.

• Unrestricted NSW licence holders – including professional drivers – were eligible for this trial. 
• NSW unrestricted licence holder must during the trial: 
  • Hold an active Unrestricted licence as of 17 January 2023 
  • Have at least one active demerit point on 17 January 2023 
  • Still have at least one active demerit point on 16 January 2024
  • Have not committed* any driving/traffic offences between 17 January 2023 and 16 January 2024 (inclusive)
  • Not have their licence suspended due to fine default for a period of three months or more 
  • Not have their driver licence expired for six months or more during the trial period 
  • Have not served a period of police suspension˄  
  • Still have active demerit points ̿ on their driving record
  • Held an unrestricted licence on 17 January 2023.
• If these criteria were not met, a driver could not participate in the trial.

• Unrestricted NSW licence holders  who had active demerit points – including professional drivers – were eligible for this trial. 
• NSW unrestricted licence holder must during the trial period: 
  • Hold an active Unrestricted licence as of 17 January 2024
  • Have at least one active demerit point on 17 January 2024 
  • Still have at least one active demerit point on 16 January 2025
  • Have not committed* any driving/traffic offences between 17 January 2024 and 16 January 2025
  • Not have their licence suspended due to fine default for a period of three months or more 
  • Not have their driver licence expired for six months or more during the trial period 
  • Have not served a period of police suspension˄  
  • Held an unrestricted licence on 17 January 2024.
• If these criteria were not met, a driver could not participate in the trial.

• Unrestricted NSW licence holders who have active demerit points – including professional drivers – were eligible for this trial. 
• NSW unrestricted licence holder must during the trial period: 
  • Hold an active Unrestricted licence as of 17 January 2025
  • Have at least one active demerit point on 17 January 2025 
  • Still have at least one active demerit point on 31 January 2026
  • Have not committed* any driving/traffic offences between 17 January 2025 and 31 January 2026
  • Not have their licence suspended due to fine default for a period of three months or more 
  • Not have their driver licence expired for six months or more during the trial period 
  • Have not served a period of police suspension˄  
• If these criteria aren't met, a driver can't participate in the trial.

• No – the trial does not affect drivers who have no active demerit points. Those drivers will not receive any point credits. 
• Drivers who maintain a clean 40-month driving record may be rewarded with discounted Compulsory Third Party insurance premiums.

• No, unrestricted licence holders, including professional drivers, with active demerit points recorded on their licence were already identified for inclusion in the trial. 
• Transport will identify those eligible for removal of a demerit point. This may take up to 10 months to complete.

Communication has been ongoing throughout the trial via updates to the Transport website, media announcements, Service NSW email and social media.

• The trial started by identifying unrestricted licence holders with current demerit points on 17 January 2023. This information was captured in the second half of 2023 to allow for offences committed up to 16 January 2023 to be finalised and recorded on their traffic history. 
• At the end of the 12-month trial and the subsequent review period, drivers who started the trial with demerit points, that have remained offence-free and meet all the criteria throughout the trial period will have a demerit point removed. A similar process will occur for the second and third trial periods.

• The Road Transport Act previously did not permit the removal of a demerit point unless it had been added to the register in error. 
• The Act was amended in August 2023 to permit the removal of a demerit point under specified circumstances.  
• These legislative changes were required for the first trial to remove a point for qualifying licence holders at the end of the 12-month trial.  The changes also included a Regulation making power to specify a second trial period should it be decided to continue the trial beyond January 2024.
• The Government has made a Regulation to implement the second and subsequent years of the trial.  

Eligible drivers received the demerit point reduction for the first trial between April to October 2024. 

Additional Information –  

• During the processing period, Transport will confirm that each eligible driver has not committed an offence during the trial period.  
• It can take some time for offences to be notified to Transport. For example, camera detected offences can take some time to be added to a persons’ driving record.  
• Offences that are appealed to court may take a number of months to be resolved.  
• The reconciliation period will help ensure that only eligible drivers get a demerit point removed from their record. 
• The demerit point summary on the Service NSW (Service) demerit point checker app will not show the demerit point reduction when it’s applied to a customer's record. However, the point reduction will be reflected in the demerit point total which will be adjusted during the six-month processing period that begins in April of the year the trial period completed*. It is best to check your demerit point total prior to this date. Customers can view and accurate reading on the Service website to track deductions.
• If you cannot see any demerit points removed from your profile, contact Service NSW on 13 77 88. Please note that we are expecting higher than normal call volumes, so there may be long wait times on calls.
   

• The NSW Government aims to encourage drivers to make responsible decisions on our roads to ensure the safety of themselves and others through this trial. 
• Transport will examine the outcome of the trial to assess any road safety impact of demerit point changes and the effectiveness of the changes.  

Drivers who receive an infringement for speeding by not more than 10km/h and have a 10-year clean driving record can request a review by Revenue NSW and may receive a caution instead of their penalty. Demerit points are not recorded, and a fine does not apply if a caution is issued. 

• Unrestricted licence – 13 points  
• Professional drivers – 14 points  
  • NSW has a higher demerit point threshold than the national agreed number of 12 demerit points, with 13 points for unrestricted drivers and 14 points for professional drivers 
• Provisional P2 licence – 7 points  
• Provisional P1 licence – 4 points  
• Learner licence – 4 points.  

   
Note: Learner and Provisional P1 and P2 Licence holders will not be included in the trial as these drivers are subject to the strict conditions of the Graduated Licensing Scheme.

• The demerit point scheme in NSW is based on a nationally agreed system and is aimed at changing driver behaviour, particularly the behaviour of repeat offenders.
• Demerit point schemes have been shown to shift unsafe driver behaviour, particularly as drivers move closer to their limit.   
• It generally takes multiple offences to reach the demerit point limit and face the risk of a licence sanction, except for serious offences or learner and provisional licence holders (which have lower demerit point thresholds).   
• As of November 2024, 70 per cent of NSW licence holders (6.3 million drivers) had no demerit points. Less than five per cent of all NSW licence holders had more than six demerit points.

• Demerit points are not recorded on the date of an offence – they are recorded when the offence is finalised – which is either:  
  • when a person pays a penalty notice,   
  • when the penalty notice goes to enforcement, or  
  • if the matter is dealt with in court, where a court issues a conviction for an offence.  

Because of this, a person may accumulate demerit points within a three-year period that takes them over the threshold. But the offence that resulted in some of the earlier demerit points may have been committed months previously.  

• Transport does not count demerit points towards a suspension where the offence that gave rise to the recording of those demerit points is more than 40 months old.

• A driver starts with zero demerit points.   
• As a licence holder commits an offence that has a demerit point penalty, they are then added to their driving record.  
• Therefore, in this trial, an unrestricted licence holder is rewarded by the removal of a demerit point – taking them closer towards having zero demerit points on their licence – not returning a demerit point.

• In the 2022-23 Half-Yearly Budget Review noted that the Fair Go for Safe Drivers Scheme was to be closed.   
• Following necessary system changes, the Fair Go for Safe Drivers Scheme concluded on 17 February 2024.   

• Drivers who committed a relevant offence during the trial period will not be eligible for the removal of a demerit point.
• For the purposes of the trial, a relevant offence is defines under the legislation (Road Transport Act 2013, sec 32A) as being one which Transport for NSW would be required to record because it incurs demerit points, one which results in the person being disqualified from holding or obtaining a licence, an unlicensed driving offence under section 53 of the Act, and also any of these offences that are dismissed by a court without conviction under section 10 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999. This is because section 10 allows the court to find the person guilty of committing the offence but not recording a conviction against the person

No, this trial is only valid for the whole licence regardless of the class held.

*If a driver has had the one demerit point removed and an offence committed during the trial period is then recorded on their driving record, the removal of this demerit point will be reversed by Transport and the correct demerit point total applied to their driver licence.

Any driver who has not had a demerit point removed due to an offence being recorded on their driving record, which is later removed, will have the demerit point removed when notification of the offence being removed has been received by Transport. 

˄If a driver is issued with a police suspension and the offence that led to the police suspension is withdrawn by the Police or not enforced by the Police, the driver is still eligible for the demerit point removal as an offence is not recorded on their driving record. If the offence is recorded on the record, the driver is not eligible for the removal of one point. 

̿ If all of a driver's demerit points expire during the trial period and their total is zero on the day the trial ends, no demerit points will be removed due to the zero balance