Licence categories, medical and fitness-to-drive requirements
The final domain tests the formal conditions attached to your licence: which category covers which vehicle, what training professional drivers need, when the medical certificate expires, and when you must not drive at all.
Categories
- C: motor vehicles over 3.5 t, other than category D, with a trailer up to 750 kg. Minimum age 18.
- C1: 3.5–7.5 t. CE: C vehicle with a trailer over 750 kg. C1E: C1 with trailer over 750 kg.
- D and D1 cover passenger transport; BE covers a car with a heavy trailer. The category you hold must match the combination actually driven, including trailer weight.
Professional drivers
Anyone driving goods vehicles professionally needs, in addition to the licence, the professional competence authorisation under the Chauffeur admission ordinance (CZV/OCF), with an initial qualification and 35 hours of further training every five years. Undertakings also need a transport licence and a safety adviser for dangerous goods where applicable.
Medical fitness
Category C and D licences require a group 2 medical certificate before issue, renewed periodically - commonly every five years for younger drivers, at shorter intervals from around age 50 and annually later. The certificate covers vision, hearing, cardiovascular fitness, diabetes, epilepsy and medication. You must notify the licensing authority of any condition that affects your ability to drive, and you must not drive when unfit through illness, fatigue, medication, drugs or alcohol.
Alcohol
0.5 per mille blood alcohol is the general limit. 0.1 per mille applies to learner drivers and drivers in the three-year probation period, and to professional passenger-transport drivers. Refusing a breath or blood test carries penalties similar to driving drunk.
Worked example
A 19-year-old holds a category C licence with a probation period and is offered a night run with a 12 t rigid truck. Two issues: the vehicle is within C, so the category fits; but the driver is in probation, so the 0.1 per mille limit applies, and if the run is professional work, the CZV qualification is also required. Answering only "the category is fine" misses two-thirds of the marks.
Traps
Assuming CE comes automatically with C; forgetting the trailer weight limit in C; letting the medical certificate lapse because the licence card looks valid; missing the probation-period alcohol limit; driving on prescription medication that impairs you because it was prescribed.