The law behind a Queensland DUI work licence
In this Queensland DUI work licence video, Josh Boorman of Boorman Lawyers gives a detailed account of applying for a restricted work licence. He explains that the law comes under section 87 of the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995.
Eligibility is black and white
Josh says the eligibility criteria are very strict. If a person is not eligible, the court does not have jurisdiction to grant a work licence. It is not a matter of persuading the court: in law, a person is either eligible or not.
He lists the main criteria. The person must hold a current Queensland open licence. They cannot have been driving to or from work, or carrying out their work duties, at the time of the offence. The reading must be in the low or middle range, below 0.150. They cannot have been driving under a licence with a zero alcohol limit. They cannot have been convicted of a drink or drug driving or dangerous driving offence in the last five years, and they cannot have had their licence suspended for any reason in that time, even for loss of points. The only exception he mentions is a suspension for unpaid SPER fines that has since been lifted.
The two things to prove
Once eligibility is established, Josh says there are two critical issues to prove. The first is that the person is a fit and proper person to hold a restricted work licence. The second is that, if they could not drive for their employment or self-employment, they or their family would suffer significant financial hardship. He stresses that a work licence is for work purposes only.
Timing at court
At the first court mention, the person should tell the court they are eligible and want to apply. Josh explains that busier courts, such as Brisbane and Southport Magistrates Courts, set aside specific days and times for work licence applications, so the matter may need to be adjourned to a later date. Smaller, less busy courts may be willing to hear a well-prepared application at the first mention. Where there is a police suspension in the meantime, he notes a section 79E application is available for an emergency replacement licence.
Step one: the application form
Josh says the first step is to complete a section 87 application form, which can be lodged at any court registry in Queensland. He says it is preferable to file it at least one week before the application is heard. The form comes in triplicate: one copy goes to the court, one is served on the police prosecutions, and the third is kept by the applicant or their solicitor.
Step two: the affidavits
Josh describes the affidavits as incredibly important. An employed applicant needs an affidavit from themselves and one from their employer. A self-employed person, or a director of their own company, needs a detailed affidavit from themselves. The applicant’s affidavit should cover the need to keep a licence to keep working and earning an income, the significant financial hardship they or their family would suffer, and why they are a fit and proper person.
The employer’s affidavit needs to be well written and informative, and should say in black and white that if the person cannot keep a licence for their job, they face termination or a significant demotion. Josh explains that an affidavit is a formal court document, sworn or affirmed, and must be witnessed by a solicitor or a justice of the peace in Queensland. Copies are filed at the court registry and served on the police prosecutions, preferably about a week before the hearing.
The hearing and the conditions
On the hearing day, the magistrate reads the material, may ask questions, and hears oral submissions. Josh says the court has heavy regard to the person’s traffic record and any rehabilitation courses completed. If a work licence is granted, the court order sets specific hours and days, limits driving to work purposes, and requires a zero blood alcohol reading, among other restrictions.
The person then takes the court order to the transport department to be issued with the restricted licence. Josh warns that the conditions must be strictly followed: driving outside work purposes, or carrying passengers who should not be there, can lead to a breach, a return to court and further penalties.
Key general information from this Queensland DUI work licence video
General information only, not legal advice, as at October 2026. Every case turns on its own facts.
- Work licences: Queensland has a “restricted licence”, commonly called a work licence, under section 87 of the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995. According to TMR’s restricted licence page, a person convicted of a drink or drug driving offence who is eligible can apply to the court that convicted them for an order that a restricted licence be issued.
- Alcohol interlocks: According to TMR, the Alcohol Ignition Interlock Program applies to people convicted of “high-risk” drink driving offences.
- What the legislation says about section 79E: The replacement licence carries a code showing that the holder may drive only under the section 79E order.
Further reading and related videos
Boorman Lawyers has more on work licences after drink driving in Queensland, the Queensland DUI court process and appearing at Southport. Its Gold Coast site covers drink driving matters on the Gold Coast.
On this site, see a Cleveland work licence case, a Beenleigh work licence case and Josh’s explainer on section 79E applications, or browse all Queensland and drink driving videos.
For people who are preparing to plead guilty without a lawyer, the DIY DUI QLD plea program covers the plea process. (DIY DUI is a self-help program for people preparing their own guilty plea. It is not legal representation and is not part of Boorman Lawyers.)
Read the video transcript
Hi, it's Josh from Boorman Lawyers today in this video I want to go through a fairly detailed account of what it takes to apply for a restricted work licence Queensland is one of the only states in Australia that has the ability to offer offenders as long as they're eligible the ability to apply for a restricted work licence the laws which relate to the relevant uh restricted work licence applications in Queensland it comes under section 87 of the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act of 1995.
Now there is a very very strict eligibility criteria in place for people who want to apply for a restricted work licence you have to be eligible to apply if you're not eligible then you don't have jurisdiction the court doesn't have jurisdiction to grant you the work licence it's not a matter of trying to persuade them around becoming eligible it's black and white in law you're either eligible or you're not so I'll just go through some of the following criteria which is involved in becoming eligible which is the first step in applying for a restricted work licence in Queensland
So an offender must hold a current Queensland open driver's licence they can't have been found at the time of offending to have been driving to or from or in the purpose of carrying out their work duties um the blood alcohol reading has to be in the low or middle range category basically it's got to be below 0.150 you were not driving under a licence at the time of the offence which had a zero blood alcohol reading limit involved
Importantly have not been convicted of any drink or drug driving or dangerous driving offences in the last five years and in fact you can't have had your licence suspended for any reason even if it's loss of points within the last five years the only exception to that rule is that if your licence was suspended due to unpaid SPER fines um which has since been lifted so if you are in a position where you believe that you are eligible to apply for a restricted work licence there are a number of important
At times somewhat technical steps that you need to undertake to be able to prove to the court that you are to be granted the privilege of being able to be granted a restricted work licence once you've passed the eligibility criteria there's two critical issues limbs of law that you need to prove to the court so the first is that you're a fit and proper person to be offered the ability to obtain a restricted work licence and the second issue that needs to be proven is that if you're unable to drive the purpose of it being employed or being self-employed then you or your family would suffer significant financial hardship keep in mind the restricted work licence is for work purposes only
So whilst we will look at a number of procedural steps that need to be undertaken throughout the court process in order to apply for a restricted work licence these are the two critical focal point issues that really need to be focused on and proven before the court at the application of your restricted work licence generally the matter will be after you've a person has been charged they will be given a notice to appear in court at the first court mention you will want to indicate to the court that you want to [unclear]. So that you are eligible and that you want to proceed on applying for a restricted work licence um generally at some of the busier courts in Queensland such as the Brisbane Magistrates Court or the Southport Magistrates Court the court allocates specific time days of the week and time periods for work licence applications to be heard so you may not necessarily be able to apply on your first court mention for a restricted work licence and if that's the case
Your matter has to be adjourned to a later date and you have to get back on the road immediately if you've got a police suspension which which was put in place at the time of charge there is always the application the 79e application to apply for an emergency replacement licence until the work licence application comes about in the future a lot of the success in relation to applying for a restricted work licence does come down to the preparation of the paperwork once you've advised the court you're seeking to apply for a restricted work licence then an application date or a court hearing date will be given to you to come back
Have that application heard mind you at some of the less busier courts if you are organised and you can prepare your application and all the paperwork these smaller and less busy courts may may be willing to hear your application at the first court mention so step one in relation to applying for the restricted work licence you need to complete a section 87 application form this is a specific form to be filled out and lodged at any court registry in Queensland you'll need to fill out all the details
File it at the court within a specific period of time prior to the section 87 application being heard it's usually preferable to get it filed at least one week before the application is listed to be heard at court this application form comes in a triplicate form so one of the copies goes to the court one copy of the application form must be served on the police prosecutions and the third form is kept for the offender or the offender solicitor the next step step two is incredibly important to the success of being able to apply for a restricted work licence
This involves the um the the preparation of very detailed uh affidavits so this is a crucial step um that has to be undertaken um where an affidavit is to be drawn up and prepared on uh by the defendant or on behalf of the defendant so generally speaking where an offender um is applying for a work licence and they are employed by a business or a company um they will have to get an affidavit from themselves and also from their employer however the only exception to this is where the offender is self-employed or they're a director of their own company
They don't have any boss that employs them then they would need to put on quite a detailed affidavit of from themselves as a self-employed worker to present to the court so a whole range of issues in these affidavits do need to be discussed predominantly surrounding the need to maintain a driver's licence in order to continue working and to continue earning an income to provide for themselves or their family in addition to this the affidavit needs to also go into some detail about a significant financial hardship
That either the defendant or the defendant's family will suffer if they're unable to drive for the purpose of continuing their employment finally um there needs to be a persuasive argument put forward in the affidavit outlining why the defendant believes that they are a fit and proper person to be granted the privilege of driving under section 87 restricted work licence the affidavit of the defendant should be filed at the Magistrates Court registry like I said about one week prior to the application being heard
So generally what we do is we get the affidavit prepared we fill out the application form and we take them all along to the court registry and have them filed at the one time now an affidavit is a formal uh court document which is effectively a statement but it does need to be signed by the [unclear: 'department' in the captions], the person writing the affidavit or affirming um or taking on oath the affidavit and it also has to be witnessed by a solicitor or a justice of the peace in Queensland
So it is a formal document and it does require these witness signatures to be properly executed so if the offender is employed and they do have a boss then they will be required to also file and serve an affidavit prepared by their employer which ultimately needs to touch upon a whole range of issues about the person's employment the defendants need to be able to maintain a driver's licence for holding down their job the affidavit um prepared by the defendant's employer will need to be well written it will need to be informative
It will need to basically in black and white say that if the defendant is unable to maintain a licence for the purpose of their job then then they'll be facing termination of their employment or significant demotion to a much lesser and less lucrative position within the company so once we've got the application prepared the two affidavits or if you're self-employed just the one affidavit they all need to be served at the court registry a copy of each document must be served on the police prosecutions as mentioned it's preferable to have them all served about one week prior to the application hearing once that is all done then it's a matter of turning up to the court on the application hearing date
Dealing with the matter and once all the paperwork's in place the magistrate on the day of the hearing will read through all that material and um and it asks the defendant or the defendant's solicitor questions about uh the matter and um certainly um the defendant or the defendant solicitor will have the opportunity to make oral submissions in persuading the court to grant the application so um yeah it can come down and be quite a technical application it's very important as a summary that you're eligible to even apply for a work licence you've got to have the right paperwork in place
That paperwork certainly does have to prove that you'll suffer significant financial hardship if you're unable to drive for maintaining your employment you or your family will suffer financial hardship you've also got to prove that you're a fit and proper person to be granted a work licence to be deemed a fit and proper person to be granted work licence the court will have heavy regard to your prior traffic record and uh any um rehabilitation or reformatory courses
That you've taken prior to the application hearing if you are uh lucky enough to be granted a restricted work licence then specific restrictions will be put down uh on a court order um in relation to your licence so you'll have specific hours of the day that you're allowed to drive specific days of the week that you're allowed to drive um you'll be ordered only to drive for the purpose of driving to and from work or for the purpose of carrying out your work duties you will have to have a zero blood alcohol
And there are a number of other restrictions that will be forthcoming on a restricted work licence on the day of the court of your application hearing if you're [unclear] subject to a police suspension then you're not allowed to drive on the day of court [unclear] and if you are granted a work licence you're not allowed to drive away from the court to the transport department because if you are granted a work licence you'll be given a court order you have to take that along to transport department
They will reissue you with a new restricted work licence and again you must strictly adhere to the conditions of that restricted work licence certainly if you're pulled over with passengers in the car who aren't meant to be there or if you're um pulled over and you're not you're found to be driving not in the course of your work then uh you can be breached on this restricted work licence sent back to court and further penalties will be forthcoming.
General information only, based on Queensland law at the time of filming. Not legal advice — every case turns on its own facts. Past results don't guarantee future outcomes.
