Conversion of Military Driving Licences into Civilian Licences

Mr Pritam Singh asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs whether the Ministry will consider allowing Full-time National Servicemen and Operationally Ready National Servicemen with good driving records but who do not meet the minimum requirements for conversion of their military driving licences to civilian driving licences, the prospects of a waiver or a modified Traffic Police testing regime to save such personnel time and money spent on acquiring an equivalent civilian driving licence.

As my Ministry had shared in January last year, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) may recommend to the Traffic Police (TP), for suitable SAF servicemen, including Full-time National Servicemen (NSFs), Operationally Ready National Servicemen (NSmen) and SAF Regulars, who hold military driving licences, to qualify for civilian driving licences if they meet the prescribed conversion criteria.

A set of conversion criteria is necessary in view of the different requirements and operating environments faced by SAF drivers and civilian drivers. For instance, SAF's military licensing regime trains servicemen to be competent in driving military vehicles in an operational environment, usually across off-road terrain, whereas TP's civilian licensing regime trains drivers to meet the demands of general motoring on Singapore's roads.

Given the different needs, servicemen who do not fulfil the conversion criteria have to be further assessed through TP's driving tests before they can qualify for civilian licences.