Licensing Rules and the Graduated Driver Licensing Program
This domain tests the rules that govern your licence itself: what Class 5 covers, what each GDL stage allows, and what ends your privilege to drive.
What a Class 5 licence covers
Class 5 covers cars, vans and light trucks, and is the class most drivers hold. Higher classes cover heavy trucks, buses and ambulances; Class 6 covers motorcycles.
Stage 1 - Learner
- You must be at least 16, or 15½ if enrolled in an approved high school driver education program.
- You must pass a vision screening and the knowledge test, scoring at least 80 per cent.
- A supervising driver must sit in the front passenger seat: someone with a full licence and at least three years of driving experience.
- Zero blood alcohol, always.
- No driving between midnight and 5 a.m.
- Passengers are limited to your supervising driver and immediate family members.
- You must hold the learner licence for at least nine months before the road test.
Stage 2 - Intermediate
After passing the road test you may drive without a supervisor, still with zero alcohol and still under the midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew. Manitoba requires a minimum of 15 months at this stage.
Full Class 5 and keeping it
After the two stages - about 24 months in total - you graduate to a full Class 5 licence. Demerit points are recorded against your licence and, with Manitoba Public Insurance's Driver Safety Rating, affect both your privilege to drive and your insurance costs. Report medical conditions that affect driving, carry your licence, and obey the hand-held device ban.
Worked example. A learner wants to drive a friend home at 12:40 a.m. Two rules block it: the midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew, and the fact that a friend is not a supervising driver or immediate family member. At 11:40 p.m. with a qualified supervisor, the same trip would be legal.
Traps. Assuming the road test ends all restrictions, and believing a friend licensed for one year can supervise.