Mali Permis Catégorie D common mistakes
Mali Permis Catégorie D · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Reading a road sign only by its shape or colour and answering from memory of the pictogram, without checking the supplementary panel underneath (distance, length, weight limit, vehicle category exception).
Candidates learn the sign catalogue as a list of images and treat the small panel as decoration; in the exam the panel is often what changes the correct answer, and bus/coach drivers are frequently the category exempted or specifically targeted.
What to do instead
For every sign question, force yourself to describe three things before choosing: the main sign's meaning, the content of any panel, and whether the panel applies to a heavy passenger vehicle. Practise with a set of panels alone (distances, tonnages, 'sauf bus', lengths) until you read them automatically.
Treating a broken white line, a continuous white line and a mixed line as interchangeable, and answering a lane-change or overtaking question without stating which marking is crossed and in which direction.
In the city and on secondary roads candidates drive by habit rather than by marking, and the mixed line (continuous on one side, broken on the other) is the one most often misread under time pressure.
What to do instead
Learn the rule as a two-part statement: which side the continuous line is on, and therefore which direction may cross. Redo any marking question by naming the line type aloud, then the permitted direction, then the manoeuvre.
At an unmarked junction or a junction with a 'cédez le passage' or stop sign, applying priority by vehicle size or by who arrives first rather than by the actual rule (priority to the right, or full stop required), and rolling through a stop line.
Professional drivers spend most of their time on routes where they have priority, so the right-hand-priority reflex decays; the stop is also treated as a formality when the road looks empty.
What to do instead
Drill the hierarchy explicitly: police officer, then traffic lights, then signs, then markings, then right-hand priority. For any stop question, answer with the complete sequence: stop at the line, check both directions, give way to both lanes, then proceed. Never answer 'slow down and continue'.
Answering overtaking and following-distance questions with the car rule (or with a fixed metre figure) instead of the heavy-vehicle rule: longer safety distance, lower speed limits for buses, and the specific bans on overtaking for vehicles over a certain weight or length.
Most candidates prepare with car-based intuition and general road knowledge; the category-D specifics (reduced limits, tachograph-linked speed, longer stopping distance loaded) are learned late or not at all.
What to do instead
Memorise the bus-specific figures as a short table (motorway, expressway, ordinary road, built-up area, rain) and the two-second/stopping-distance logic behind them. For each overtaking question, first ask 'is a bus allowed to overtake here at all?' before judging visibility.
Underestimating stopping distance and blind-spot risk with a loaded bus: answering a hazard question as if the vehicle brakes and changes direction like a car, and ignoring the tail swing and the swept path in tight turns.
Candidates without heavy-vehicle experience reason from passenger-car physics; mass, load distribution, air-brake response time and the rear overhang are abstract until driven.
What to do instead
Learn stopping distance as reaction distance plus braking distance at the actual mass, and remember that air brakes add response time. For manoeuvring questions, always check mirror, blind spot and rear overhang sweep before answering, and treat 'I would accelerate to clear the junction' as wrong when a bus is involved.
Answering fatigue, alcohol and medication questions with the legal limit only, ignoring the rules specific to professional drivers (lower alcohol threshold or zero tolerance in many contexts, tachograph and working-time limits, obligation to stop at the first signs of drowsiness).
Candidates revise the private-motorist version of the highway code and assume the same thresholds apply; the professional-driver regime is tested separately and is stricter.
What to do instead
Build a one-page summary of the professional rules: alcohol threshold applicable to you, drugs and medication warnings on the box, and the fact that fatigue is managed by stopping, not by opening a window or turning up the radio. Answer behaviour questions with the safe action, not the legal minimum.
Confusing the tachograph record types and the driving/break rules: counting a break as rest, treating other work or availability as driving, or mis-stating the daily and weekly driving limits and the minimum break split.
The four-mode symbols look similar and the break rules have a two-part structure (a first block of at least a set length, then a second block) that candidates memorise as a single number.
What to do instead
Learn the modes by what the driver is physically doing (driving, other work, availability, break/rest) and write out a sample day on paper, inserting breaks and checking the totals. Reproduce the daily and weekly limits and the break split from memory weekly until stable.
Handling boarding and alighting as a formality: opening the doors before the bus is fully stopped, not accounting for passengers standing or moving, not checking the doorway and mirrors before closing, and not securing a wheelchair or pushchair.
In service the stop is repetitive and drivers automate it; exam questions describe a crowded bus or a passenger still moving and candidates answer with the routine rather than the safe sequence.
What to do instead
Memorise a fixed sequence and apply it to every question: stop fully, apply the parking brake, check the doorway and mirrors, then open; before moving, close doors, check mirrors and blind spots, confirm no one is standing in the doorway or moving in the aisle. For wheelchair or pushchair questions, answer with securing the device and the occupant before departure.
On an incident question, starting with moving the vehicle or exchanging paperwork instead of the protective sequence: protect (hazard lights, warning triangle where required, high-visibility vest before leaving the cab), alert, then assist - and giving first aid that is not adapted (moving an injured casualty, giving drinks, removing a helmet).
Candidates answer the administrative or mechanical part first because it is what they know, and first-aid knowledge is often reduced to vague good intentions.
What to do instead
Learn the ordered checklist protect–alert–assist and apply it to every scenario, including the position of the triangle and the vest. For first aid, learn the few actions that are always right (protect, check consciousness and breathing, alert, keep warm, do not move unless in immediate danger) and the few that are always wrong (drink, helmet removal, moving a suspected spinal injury).
Answering document and administrative questions from general knowledge: not knowing which papers must be carried on board and their validity, confusing the vehicle registration document with the insurance certificate, or not knowing what to do when a document is missing or expired during a check.
These questions feel like common sense, so candidates skip them, yet the exact list and the validity rules (insurance, technical inspection, licence category, transport authorisation, tachograph records) are precisely defined and tested.
What to do instead
Write the on-board document list as a checklist and attach the validity rule to each item. For each document, also learn the consequence of it being absent or expired. Revise this list together with the pre-departure walk-around, since the same check covers both.