CONVENTION ON ROAD TRAFFIC

The Contracting Parties, desiring to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety through the adoption of uniform traffic rules, have agreed upon the following provisions:

Chapter IV

DRIVERS OF MOTOR VEHICLES

ARTICLE 41

Driving permits

1. (a) Every driver of a motor vehicle must hold a driving permit;

(b) Contracting Parties undertake to ensure that driving permits are issued only after verification by the competent authorities that the driver possesses the required knowledge and skill;

(c) Domestic legislation must lay down requirements for obtaining a driving permit;

(d) Nothing in this Convention shall be construed as preventing Contracting Parties or subdivisions thereof from requiring driving permits for other power-driven vehicles and mopeds.

2. Contracting Parties shall recognize:

(a) Any domestic permit drawn up in their national language or in one of their national languages, or, if not drawn up in such a language, accompanied by a certified translation;

(b) Any domestic permit conforming to the provisions of Annex 6 to this Convention; and

(c) Any international permit conforming to the provisions of Annex 7 to this Convention;

as valid for driving in their territories a vehicle coming within the categories covered by the permit, provided that the permit is still valid and that it was issued by another Contracting Party or subdivision thereof or by an association duly empowered thereto by such other Contracting Party. The provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to learner-driver permits.

3. Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph:

(a) Where the validity of the driving permit is made subject by special endorsement to the condition that the holder shall wear certain devices or that the vehicle shall be equipped in a certain way to take account of the driver's disability, the permit shall not be recognized as valid unless those conditions are observed;

(b) Contracting Parties may refuse to recognize the validity in their territories of driving permits held by persons under eighteen years of age;

(c) Contracting Parties may refuse to recognize the validity in their territories, for the driving of motor vehicles or combinations of vehicles in categories C, D and E referred to in Annexes 6 and 7 to this Convention, of driving permits held by persons under twenty-one years of age.

4. Contracting Parties may introduce in their domestic legislation a subdivision of the categories of vehicles referred to in Annexes 6 and 7 of this Convention. If the driving permit is restricted to certain vehicles within a category, a numeral shall be added to the letter of the category and the nature of the restriction shall be indicated in the driving permit.

5. For the purpose of the application of paragraph 2 and subparagraph 3 (c) of this Article:

(a) A motor vehicle of the category B referred to in Annexes 6 and 7 to this Convention may be coupled to a light trailer; it may also be coupled to a trailer whose permissible maximum mass exceeds 750 kg but does not exceed the unladen mass of the motor vehicle if the combined permissible maximum mass of the vehicles so coupled does not exceed 3,500 kg;

(b) A motor vehicle of the category C, or of the category D referred to in Annexes 6 and 7 to this Convention may be coupled to a light trailer without the resultant combination ceasing to belong to category C or category D.

6. An international permit shall be issued only to the holder of a domestic permit for the issue of which the minimum conditions laid down in this Convention have been fulfilled. It shall not be valid after the expiry of the corresponding domestic permit, the number of which shall be entered in the international permit.

7. The provisions of this Article shall not require Contracting Parties:

(a) To recognize the validity of domestic or international permits issued in the territory of another Contracting Party to persons who had their normal residence in their territories at the time of such issue or whose normal residence has been transferred to their territories since such issue; or

(b) To recognize the validity of permits as aforesaid issued to drivers whose normal residence at the time of such issue was not in the territory in which the permit was issued or who since such issue have transferred their residence to another territory.