Traffic Police (TP) will introduce measures to prioritise Class 4 driving lessons to Singaporeans, permanent residents (PRs) and work pass holders who are employed as full-time drivers.
Taking effect from Monday (Sept 15), this comes amid high demand and falling pass rates for Class 4 lessons and is aimed at reducing the wait time for lessons, according to the Singapore Police Force (SPF) in a press release on Sept 14.
The average waiting time for Class 4 driving lessons is currently about 13 months.
Since the occupational requirement – which allowed only Singaporeans, PRs and work pass holders employed to drive heavy vehicles to enrol for Class 4 driving lessons – was removed in May 2023, enrolment figures for Class 4 driving lessons have risen sharply, said SPF.
Enrolment numbers reached a peak of more than 1,000 new learners in the month of September 2024, averaging about 650 new learners per month in the first half of 2025.
TP removed the occupational requirement in response to industry requests to give employers more flexibility in the deployment of their workers, the police noted. This meant that all drivers with a valid Class 3 or Class 3C driving licence could enrol for Class 4 driving lessons.
In addition, the passing rate for the Class 4 driving test has fallen to about 30 per cent, compared to above 40 per cent in 2022 and 2023.
“A good number of the failures are Work Permit and S Pass holders. They had converted their foreign driving licence to be a Singapore Class 3C licence, but seemed to lack the proficiency to drive even Class 3 vehicles competently,” said SPF, adding that this had led to higher demand for Class 4 retests and lessons for the retest.
New measures to reduce wait times
Learners are generally allocated lessons on a first-come-first-served basis. Singaporeans and PRs will be given priority from Sept 15.
This prioritisation will be extended to work pass holders employed as full-time drivers based on their occupation declared to the Ministry of Manpower, said SPF.
TP will also prioritise learners from companies that have already installed speed limiters on their lorries, over those from companies that have not installed speed limiters despite being subject to the mandatory speed limiter regime.
To optimise the limited capacity, learners who fail the Class 4 driving test after three attempts will not be allowed to register for another retest for at least six months. This is expected to allow TP and the Singapore Safety Driving Centre (SSDC) to allocate a higher proportion of lessons and tests to new Class 4 learners.
Work permit and S Pass holders holding a Class 3C driving licence converted from a valid foreign driving licence will be subject to a road assessment before they can proceed with Class 4 driving lessons.
Those who fail the road assessment will be disallowed from taking Class 4 driving lessons, as well as having their Class 3C licence revoked.
In addition, all work pass holders enrolling for Class 4 driving lessons will need to submit an official declaration of support from their employer, stating that their companies deploy Class 4 vehicles and that they intend to deploy the named work pass holders holding Class to drive Class 4 vehicles for work.
This will allow TP and SSDC to prioritise learners whom the industry has specifically identified to fill driving roles, said SPF.
Employers can submit the declaration using their CorpPass via https://go.gov.sg/class4support.
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