British Columbia
The second road test is being removed. What takes its place?
It reads the dates you give it against the driving time ICBC publishes for the Driving Record Assessment, and names the official page every line came from. It cannot see your record, so it cannot decide anything.
Change date: 19 October 2026.Every figure below checked against ICBC and the province on 28 August 2026.
Where you stand
Your own dates, read against the criteria ICBC has published. It stays in this browser and nothing is sent anywhere.
Only used to count months against what ICBC asks for. It stays in this browser.
Leave this empty if you have not booked one.
Choose your stage above and this will lay out what the change on 19 October 2026 means for you, using ICBC's own published criteria.
What changes on that day
The second road test is the one that took a novice driver to a full Class 5. It is that test, and only that test, that goes. ICBC replaces it with a Driving Record Assessment, which is a reading of the record it already holds on you rather than a drive with an examiner beside you. Meet the criteria and the Class 5 you are given carries a restriction for its first 12 months.
The assessment asks two things of that record. The first is time: enough months of safe driving as a novice, with the number set by your age and by whether an approved graduated licensing course was completed during the learner stage. The second is the content of the record itself. ICBC asks for no convictions for excessive speed or for use of an electronic device in that period, and no prohibitions or suspensions in it.
Your first road test is unaffected. ICBC still states that a learner reaches a novice licence by passing the Class 7 road test, and nothing published about this change touches that step.
Safe driving ICBC asks for from a driver under 25
24 months
ICBC, Changes to the Graduated Licensing Programverified 2026-08-28The same driver, with an approved graduated licensing course completed during the learner stage
18 months
ICBC, Changes to the Graduated Licensing Programverified 2026-08-28Safe driving ICBC asks for from a driver aged 25 or older
12 months
ICBC, Changes to the Graduated Licensing Programverified 2026-08-28Restriction 55 on the new Class 5: zero blood alcohol content and zero blood drug content
12 months
ICBC, You have a Class 7 licence and you are under 25verified 2026-08-28A booked second road test on or after that day will be cancelled
ICBC says a second road test booked on or after 19 October 2026 will be cancelled and that it will email you to confirm the cancellation and your next steps. That makes the email address ICBC holds for you the thing to check, rather than the appointment. ICBC has not published anything about tests booked before that day, so if yours is earlier, ask them rather than reading anything into the silence.
What we checked, and when
Each line below was read off the official page beside it on 28 August 2026. None of it is summarised from a news story, and nothing on this page carries a figure that is not on this list.
The date the change takes effect, 19 October 2026, and the removal of the second road test for drivers whose record meets the criteria.
ICBC, Changes to the Graduated Licensing Program, read 28 August 2026
The driving time the Driving Record Assessment asks for: 24 months under 25, 18 months under 25 with an approved graduated licensing course completed during the learner stage, 12 months at 25 and older.
ICBC, Changes to the Graduated Licensing Program, read 28 August 2026
The two record conditions: no convictions for excessive speed or use of an electronic device, and no prohibitions or suspensions.
ICBC, Changes to the Graduated Licensing Program, read 28 August 2026
That a second road test booked on or after 19 October 2026 will be cancelled, and that ICBC will send an email to confirm it.
ICBC, Changes to the Graduated Licensing Program, read 28 August 2026
Restriction 55 on the new Class 5 licence, zero blood alcohol content and zero blood drug content, expiring after 12 months, and restarting from the reinstatement date if a prohibition or suspension lands inside that period.
ICBC, You have a Class 7 licence and you are under 25, read 28 August 2026
That the assessment is applied for at a driver licensing office, and that the online booking system carries it as a service of its own from the day the change takes effect.
ICBC, You have a Class 7 licence and you are under 25, read 28 August 2026
That a record of unsafe driving, including convictions for excessive speeding and electronic device use, results in restarting the novice driving period.
Government of British Columbia, Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, news release on graduated licensing, read 28 August 2026
That the first road test is untouched. ICBC still states that passing the Class 7 road test is how a learner reaches a novice licence.
ICBC, Get your N, read 28 August 2026
What has not been published
A change this close deserves an honest account of the holes in it, so here are the ones we found. On the pages we read, ICBC states no fee for the Driving Record Assessment. It does not say whether the restricted Class 5 carries any of the other conditions that apply during the novice stage. And it does not set out, step by step, what a driver whose record falls short does next.
On that last point the provincial announcement goes furthest: a record of unsafe behaviour, it says, including convictions for excessive speeding and electronic device use, results in restarting the novice driving period. What that means for one particular driver on one particular date is a question for ICBC, and we would rather send you to them than fill the gap with a guess.
One further condition is published and worth knowing. If a prohibition or suspension lands during the 12 month restriction on the new Class 5, ICBC says the restriction period restarts from the date the licence is reinstated.
This page is a reading of published rules, not a decision
ICBC holds your driving record and ICBC decides what happens to your licence. Nothing here can see your record, and none of it is advice about your case. Where your own reading and ICBC disagree, ICBC is right and we are wrong. Rules also move, which is why the date this was checked sits at the top of the page rather than in a footnote.
Every figure this checker applies
The driving time and the restriction ICBC publishes for the assessment, each carrying the page it was read from. Change one of these in the data layer and the checker moves with it.
- Driving time under 2524 months
A driver under 25 needs at least 24 months of safe driving to qualify for the Driving Record Assessment.
ICBC, Changes to the Graduated Licensing Programverified 2026-08-28 - Driving time under 25, with an approved course finished in the learner stage18 months
That falls to 18 months for a driver under 25 who completed an approved graduated licensing course during the learner stage.
ICBC, Changes to the Graduated Licensing Programverified 2026-08-28 - Driving time at 25 and older12 months
A driver aged 25 or older needs at least 12 months of safe driving.
ICBC, Changes to the Graduated Licensing Programverified 2026-08-28 - How long the new restriction lasts12 months
The Class 5 licence granted through the assessment carries a restriction for 12 months before it becomes a full Class 5.
ICBC, Changes to the Graduated Licensing Programverified 2026-08-28 - The restriction code itself55
ICBC applies restriction 55 to that licence, requiring zero blood alcohol content and zero blood drug content while driving, and it expires after 12 months.
ICBC, You have a Class 7 licence and you are under 25verified 2026-08-28
What this checker ignores
Assumptions and limits
- It cannot see your driving record, and the assessment is a reading of that record. What it can do is put your own dates against the published driving time.
- It applies the criteria ICBC has published and nothing else. Where the published wording leaves a case open, this page says so rather than deciding it.
- It counts whole months between two dates. A day either side of a boundary is a case to put to ICBC rather than to this page.
- It is a reading of published rules, not a decision. Only ICBC decides an eligibility question about your own licence.
Where to go next
How British Columbia graduated licensing works
The learner and novice stages this change sits inside, and what each one lets you do.
The ICBC knowledge test
The published format, the pass mark and the fee for the test at the start of the path, with a free simulation of it.
Novice driver restrictions
What a learner or novice licence lets you do in the meantime, hour by hour and passenger by passenger.
Sources
ICBC, Changes to the Graduated Licensing Program
Verified 2026-08-28
The page that states the effective date, the assessment and the criteria.
ICBC, You have a Class 7 licence and you are under 25
Verified 2026-08-28
The page that names the restriction applied to the new Class 5 licence.
Verified 2026-08-28
The provincial announcement, which describes the restriction and the consequence of an unsafe record.
Verified 2026-08-28
Still describes a road test as the way to reach the novice licence.
Everything else about testing in British Columbia or how we decide what goes on a page