A demerit point suspension in Queensland rarely arrives as a surprise about the driving. It arrives as a letter. Somewhere between a mobile phone fine and a speed camera notice the points on a traffic history cross a line, and a notice to choose turns up: take the suspension now, or keep driving for twelve months on condition of good behaviour.
Electing good behaviour is the option that leaves the licence in the wallet, and it is the only one of the two that keeps a driver on the road. But the two are not mirror images, and the differences surface later: in how long the suspension runs if the good behaviour year is breached, and in whether a court can authorise the driver to keep driving at all.
The scheme sits in Chapter 7 of the Transport Operations (Road Use Management-Driver Licensing) Regulation 2021 (Qld), which prescribes the points for particular offences and sets out when a licence is suspended because of them (s 254). Section references below are to that regulation unless another instrument is named.
How points land on a traffic history
Points are recorded where a person is convicted of a demerit points offence or an equivalent interstate offence, and where an enforcement order is made for such an offence under the State Penalties Enforcement Act 1999 (Qld) s 38 or under a corresponding interstate law (s 256(1)).
The number comes from Schedule 5. Driving more than 40km/h over the limit carries eight points, and more than 30km/h but not more than 40km/h over carries six. Failing to give way, disobeying a stop or give way sign, and disobeying a red traffic light each carry three. A mobile phone offence by a driver under 25 holding a class C learner or P1 provisional licence carries four.
The timing rule matters more than most drivers expect. Points are taken to be allocated on the day the offence was committed, not the day the fine is paid or the charge is finalised (s 257(2)). A fine contested for months is backdated when it resolves, which is what makes the counting windows below bite in a way that can feel retrospective. There is at least a limit on double counting: once points have produced a notice, they must be disregarded in deciding whether another one has to be given (s 262(2)).
The loadings for repeating the same offence
Four provisions add points on top of the Schedule 5 figure where the same kind of offence is repeated within a year of an earlier one. A second seatbelt offence as a driver attracts four additional points (s 258), a second motorbike helmet offence three (s 259), a second mobile phone offence four (s 261), and a second speeding offence of more than 20km/h over the limit four, six or eight depending on the margin (s 260).
These loadings are the quiet reason a driver who has never been suspended suddenly receives a notice. A second mobile phone offence eleven months after the first does not carry what the first one carried. It carries its Schedule 5 figure plus four.
The two thresholds, and the drivers who get no choice
Which threshold applies turns on two things, not one. Each division opens on the licence the driver holds when the points are counted up, and then counts them over a window defined by the licence held while they accumulated.
| Driver | Threshold | Window | Required suspension period | Notice to choose? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open licence (s 263(1)) | 12 or more points | 3 years | 3 months up to 15 points, 4 months for 16 to 19, 5 months for 20 or more (s 255) | Yes |
| Learner, P1, P2 or P type licence during the period, no open licence (s 263(2)) | 4 or more points | 1 year | 3 months (s 255) | Yes, unless Division 2 applies (next row) |
| Class C learner licence for the whole period (ss 267, 268) | 4 or more points | 1 year | 3 months | No, a suspension notice issues |
The banded scale is not general. It applies to a “relevant person”, and the category that matters here is the open licence holder caught by s 263(1) (s 255). A provisional driver who reaches four points in a year is not a relevant person, so the required suspension period is a flat three months however the points were earned.
The third row is routinely misdescribed as a choice. The notice to choose division does not apply to a person to whom Division 2 applies (s 263(4)), and a driver who held a class C learner licence for the whole of the one year counting period falls into Division 2. For that driver the chief executive must give a notice of suspension, not a notice to choose (ss 267, 268). There is no good behaviour option at all.
What the notice actually offers
The notice must require a choice, within a stated choice period of at least 21 days after the day it is given, between having the licence suspended for the required suspension period and agreeing to be of good behaviour while driving for a year (s 264(1)).
Two dates then do the work, both defined in the regulation’s dictionary. The sanction day is normally the last day of the choice period, although a driver who wants the sanction to begin sooner may ask in writing for an earlier day, and the notice must say so (s 264(2)(c)). The good behaviour year is a period of one year starting on that sanction day. Bringing the sanction day forward is worth a moment’s thought rather than being treated as paperwork, because it moves both the start of a suspension and the start of a good behaviour year.
Doing nothing is a choice, and it is the suspension
A driver who neither elects suspension nor elects good behaviour within the choice period is treated exactly as though they had elected suspension: the licence is suspended for the required suspension period starting on the sanction day (s 265(1)(b), (2)). Where no choice is notified, the sanction day is the day after the last day of the choice period. Silence buys nothing and reserves nothing.
Nor does handing the licence in. If the licence expires or is surrendered during the choice period and another Queensland licence is granted, the notice continues in effect against the new licence (s 281(3)). If no new licence is granted the notice stops having effect, but the driver is instead ineligible to hold a Queensland licence, and not authorised to drive under a non-Queensland one, for a period equivalent to the suspension that would have applied (s 281(4), (7)).
The good behaviour year, and what breaches it
The good behaviour year is breached when two or more demerit points are recorded for offences committed during the year (s 266(1)(b)). Two points is a low threshold: on the Schedule 5 figures above, a single failure to give way or a single red light is three.
The consequence is why the original choice matters. On a breach the chief executive must give written notice that the licence is suspended for a period that is double the required suspension period, and the suspension then runs for that doubled period (s 266(2)(b), (5)(b)). An open licence holder whose required suspension period was five months faces ten. A provisional driver on three months faces six.
The trap is in the words “committed during”. It is the date of the offence, not the date the fine is paid or the charge is dealt with, that puts conduct inside the year (s 266(1)(b)). An offence committed in the final week and resolved three months later is still a breach. A driver who counts twelve months from the date on the letter rather than from the sanction day can also be weeks out, and weeks are enough. The breach notice must state a start date at least 21 days after it is given, or an earlier day if the driver asks for one (s 266(2)(c), (3)).
The special hardship order asymmetry
A special hardship order is an order of a court authorising a driver whose open or provisional licence has been suspended to continue driving in stated circumstances (s 309(2)). Chapter 10 does not reach every suspension. It operates where the licence has been suspended under a “relevant provision”, and a relevant provision is defined as s 266(5) or s 285(5) (ss 307, 308).
Section 266(5) is the doubled suspension that follows a breach of a good behaviour year. Section 285(5) is a separate track: the six month suspension that follows driving more than 40km/h over the speed limit (ss 284, 285). Neither is s 265(2), which is the provision under which an elected suspension, or a suspension imposed because the driver said nothing, actually takes effect. So on the face of the regulation a driver who elects suspension has no route to a special hardship order for it, while a driver who elects good behaviour and later breaches may have one.
None of which is a reason to breach a good behaviour year. An order has to be applied for and granted, eligibility requires the application to relate to a licence of the same class as the suspended one (s 310(1)), and the doubled suspension stands if the application fails. Chapter 10 also closes in the other direction: a driver is not eligible to apply if, within five years before the licence was suspended, a Queensland licence they held was suspended or cancelled, or they were disqualified (s 311(1)(a)). The exclusions in s 311(2) do not include a demerit point suspension, so an elected suspension today is capable of shutting off a hardship application on a later suspension inside that five year window.
Driving during the suspension
A suspension is not a softer status than a disqualification. While a licence is suspended it has the same effect as a cancellation, and the former holder is disqualified from holding or obtaining a licence of the same kind, class or description (Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995 (Qld) s 127(4)).
The driver therefore holds no licence authorising them to drive, and driving contravenes s 78(1) of that Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 40 penalty units or one year’s imprisonment. On conviction, where the offence was committed while the person was disqualified because of the allocation of demerit points, the court must disqualify them for a further six months, and must do so whether or not a conviction is recorded (s 78(3)(b), (4)). That disqualification is mandatory rather than discretionary, which is why the dates of a suspension are worth getting right rather than guessing at.
Published 2 October 2026.
Where the decision actually gets made
The notice to choose is the visible decision point but usually not the first one. Points attach on a conviction or an enforcement order (s 256(1)), and a driver served with an infringement notice has 28 days to pay the fine, to elect to have the matter of the offence decided in a Magistrates Court, or where relevant to give one of the statutory declarations about who was driving (State Penalties Enforcement Act 1999 (Qld) s 22(1)). Whether the offence is made out at all is live at that stage and settled by the time the points reach the traffic history.
Once the notice arrives the question is narrower but still real: which option fits the driving the next twelve months will actually involve, what the required suspension period is on the particular licence held, whether one of the other divisions applies, and whether a doubled suspension is a risk the household can absorb.
Related reading
- Double demerits in Queensland
- Special hardship orders and work licences in Queensland
- Getting your licence back after disqualification
- How Fraser Lawyers helps with work licence applications
- How Fraser Lawyers helps with traffic matters
- Contact Fraser Lawyers
Need advice? A notice to choose runs on a short clock, and the two options it offers are not interchangeable. If this is your situation, contact Fraser Lawyers to understand your rights and where you stand, with no obligation. |
This article is general information only and is not legal advice. Queensland law and the figures referred to can change, and every situation turns on its own facts. Contact Fraser Lawyers for advice specific to your circumstances.
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