Driving license for points in Portugal

If you are a driver in Portugal, you’d better read your email, because the local authorities have already started to spread the news online about the new driving license for points in Portugal.

Basically, as of this June 1st 2016, a new traffic law has been adopted stating that every driver’s license comes with 12 points. Commit traffic contraventions and you will be sanctioned and lose points. Lose too many and you will have to attend a traffic course or even take the driver’s test again.

Let’s see how this all works in a nutshell:

As of June 1st, every traffic offence that can be deemed serious will be sanctioned with up to 6 points. These points are consequently subtracted from the 12 total points a driver has.

What happens if you lose points? Provided it is not a serious error and you are only sanctioned with a few points, all is well. But if you have only 4 or 5 points left, you will be forced to attend a traffic safety course. If you don’t, you can lose your permit and not be allowed to take the test for 2 years. If you run out of points (meaning you are left with 3 to 1 points), you will have to take the driving test again. If you fail to present yourself for the theoretical test, you risk being banned from taking the test again for 2 years. And if you are left with no points, your license will be annulled and you will have to wait for 2 years to get a new one.

Still, there is light in all this gloom: after 3 years of no serious traffic offences, you obtain 3 points, so that can make up for previous… transgressions or add up to a maximum 15 points, in case you have never committed a traffic offence.

The new measures aim at rendering the Portuguese streets safer and making drivers more responsible.