Red plate. One mate | New rules for red P-platers

If it is a requirement of your employment to drive with more than one passenger in your vehicle, you are eligible for an exemption to the red P-plate passenger limit. You do not need to apply for this exemption. However, you are required to have a letter from your employer to present to WA Police when requested.

The Passenger Restriction Exemption form (E190) can be used by your employer to support this exemption, or used as a guide for them to create their own letter confirming they require you to drive with more than one passenger for your employment. 

If your employer creates their own letter, please ensure it includes the following:

• Your full name and driver's licence details
• Company or employer name
• Contact information of the employer
• ABN or ACN details (if applicable)
• Reasons for transporting more passengers
• Who the additional passengers are (if known).

If the additional passengers already meet the requirements of the other exemptions, they do not need to be listed in this letter.

Safe Driver Reward Program

The Safe Driver Reward Program for P-Plate drivers will be expanded to further incentivise safe driving over a longer period of three years. 

Young drivers who have just passed their driving test are considered high-risk due to over confidence and inexperience.  

Currently, if P-Plate drivers remain demerit point free during their two-year probationary period, they are rewarded with a free full licence for one year. Under the expanded pilot program, drivers who remain demerit point free for a further year (ie, a total of three consecutive years of demerit free driving), will be rewarded with up to a $100 discount off their next driver's licence renewal either as:

• a $100 discount off a 5-year licence (currently $163.50); or
• a one-year licence free (currently $46.85).

The expanded incentive is designed to encourage safe driving over a longer period and deter young inexperienced drivers from taking risks when their probationary period ends. 

Safer Driver Course

The Department of Transport will offer a pilot Safer Driver Course for up to 750 people under 25 years of age as an optional component of the existing Driver Access and Equity Program (DAEP).

The course aims to address the higher crash risk for young provisional drivers in their first six months.

Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth (P.A.R.T.Y.)

The P.A.R.T.Y. program, which provides opportunities for students to understand the trauma associated with road crashes through WA hospitals, will be extended to regional students. 

A program is also being developed to allow for road crash survivors and their families to share their experience with sporting clubs, schools and other community groups with cohorts of young drivers. This will be run alongside similar programs already being undertaken by Daniel Campo, whose son Nick lost his life as a passenger in a serious road crash in July 2024.

Other actions

• The State Government will commission a comprehensive review into the existing learner and provisional driver licensing schemes, as well as skills and training requirements for motorcycle and heavy vehicle licences. The review will consider the latest research and best practice experience from other Australian jurisdictions, including the use of improved hazard perception training, additional safe driving courses, instructor training and accreditation, penalties and first aid courses. It will also examine the feasibility of a more comprehensive approach to skills-based graduation through the range of licence categories for motorcycles and heavy vehicles.
• Review of existing learner and provisional driver schemes, and skills and training requirements for motorcycle and heavy vehicles licences
• A suite of new road safety measures to keep vulnerable novice drivers safe

P-Plater restrictions were a key theme that emerged from a Road Safety Roundtable in August 2024, which heard from a diverse range of road safety experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience of road trauma.

Young WA drivers aged 17-19 have the highest KSI (Killed or Seriously injured) rate at 107 per 100,000 population compared to other age groups (The Western Australian Road Fatalities and Serious Injuries 2023 report).

Statistics and recent tragedies on our WA roads have shown that novice drivers are at higher risk of crashing when they are distracted.  

The new one-person passenger restriction aims to alleviate this problem and bring Western Australia into line with other jurisdictions. 

The complete curfew on Red P-Plate driving between midnight and 5am will continue to apply. 

The legislation is referred to as Tom's Law, after Tom Saffioti, 15, who was a passenger in a fatal crash in 2021. Since then, Tom's mother, Samantha, has been lobbying the government to make the changes in the hope that it will prevent other families from a similar experience.
 

The 'Red plate. One mate.' campaign targets all existing and future red P-plate drivers and their parents, with the clear message that from December 1, red P-plate drivers will be restricted to carrying only one passenger in their vehicles at all permitted driving times. 

The campaign will boost awareness of the new law through social media, radio, digital audio and video, and outdoor advertising until the end of January 2025.

Read the Minister's full media statement.