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Fiona Landgren, is Principal Consultant, Communicating for Health Pty Ltd, Richmond, Victoria.  \nBACKGROUND The national standards for assessing private and commercial vehicle drivers have recently been revised and combined into a single publication ‘Assessing Fitness to Drive’, published by Austroads. The new publication provides greater clarity of medical criteria for general practitioners and specialists and also details useful management guidelines.  \nOBJECTIVE This article introduces GPs to the new standards, outlines the key changes and implications for practice, and highlights several medical, legal and ethical issues. DISCUSSION Assessment of fitness to drive is a common issue in patient management and one that carries significant health, safety and lifestyle consequences both for the drivers themselves and other road users.  \nDecisions  \ndrive a  \non a patient’s fitness to private or commercial  \nvehicle can have profound effects on their lifestyle or livelihood. Such decisions also have significant health and safety implications for the driver and other road users. The decision making process may involve difficult medical, ethical and legal issues. In order to assist general practitioners to assess their patients and advise them appropriately, an extensive revision of the medical standards for private and commercial drivers has been conducted. The new national standards ‘Assessing Fitness to Drive’1 will be circulated to all practis  \ning GPs in Australia in September 2003.  \nThe review of the standards was conducted under the auspices of the National Road Transport Commission and involved extensive consultation with the medical profession, regulators, the trans-  \nport industry and unions. Participating in the review process and providing endorsement of the final standards were the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Australian Medical Association and many specialist societies. Focus groups with GPs were also conducted in order to secure input from those actively involved in assessing fitness to drive.  \nCombining commercial and private standards  \nThe new standards replace the existing medical standards for private2 and commercial3 vehicle drivers and combine the two sets of standards into one user friendly handbook. As well as being of significant practical benefit to examining health professionals, the combining of the standards helps to highlight the difference  \nin risk assessment for the two major classes of licence.  \nThe risk for commercial vehicle drivers is higher than that for private drivers as the former are on the road many hours of the day or night thus increasing their time exposure. The consequences of a crash involving a commercial vehicle are also likely to be more serious, particularly if the vehicle carries passengers or dangerous goods. Therefore, higher medical standards are applied for all commercial vehicle drivers.(See the ‘Fitness to drive’ quiz page 737 this issue) .  \nThe standards are presented in 23 chapters which cover the majority of illnesses/conditions affecting driving, ranging from A for Alcohol to V for Vision. Each chapter begins with notes summarising the relevance of the condi-  \n*This article is only introductory to the new licensing standards to which reference must be made on any specific issue.  \n732 • Reprinted from Australian Family Physician Vol. 32, No. 9, September 2003  \nNew medical standards for drivers  \nTable 1. Licencing criteria for diabetes  \ndrive  \nannual  \n\n| MEDICAL STANDARDS FOR LICENSING – DIABETES |  |  |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Condition | Private standards | Commercial standards |\n|  | (Drivers of cars, light rigid vehicles or motorcycles ","cbCaifalUfYnICFw","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifalUfYnICFw","pdf",155758,"English","# Clinical Practice: Fitness to drive\n## Background and objective\n## Discussion and decision-making\n## Combining commercial and private standards\n## Risk differences by licence class\n## Standards structure and example criteria (diabetes)","[{\"question\":\"What is the purpose of “Assessing Fitness to Drive” for GPs?\",\"answer\":\"It clarifies medical criteria and management guidelines for assessing fitness to drive, introduces key changes, and outlines implications for practice.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the standards address differences between private and commercial driving risk?\",\"answer\":\"Commercial drivers have higher exposure time on the road, and crashes involving commercial vehicles are likely more serious, leading to higher medical standards.\"},{\"question\":\"How are the medical standards organized for different illnesses or conditions?\",\"answer\":\"They are presented in 23 chapters covering conditions affecting driving, ranging from A for Alcohol to V for Vision.\"}]","Clinical Practice: Fitness to drive - New medical standards for drivers | PDF",13]