Getting Your Drivers License in Jamaica

1. The Learners Permit

I began the process of getting my Jamaican drivers license when I was 20 years old. Upon beginning the process I realized it was a mistake to wait so long. Although at the moment of writing this I am still yet to have the license card in my possession, I thought I should write about my own personal experience surrounding acquiring my Jamaican drivers license in 2023 -2024. I began the process in  2023, I acquired my forms and set out to complete the goal at the time. The goal at the time being passing my road code test and acquire my learners permit. Now, in years gone by in Jamaica all you had to do to acquire a learners permit was to go the tax office, pay the requisite fee and you will be presented with a learners permit or "Learners". However all that changed (for some reason) and you are now required to move heaven and earth to receive a learners permit. Even a medical form, yes, a medical form. You need  a medical form to go to the depot to sit and do a test of 20 multiple choice questions and nothing else. 

The learners test was fairly easy and straightforward. It comprised of mostly common sense question and one or two tricky questions that you really need to think about. When I was completing it the pass rate was 75% which meant that I needed to get at least 15/20 questions correct. You can adequately prepare yourself for the test by just studying the questions that are at the back of the red road code book.

Anyway, I completed that step and acquired my learners and here's why I said I waited to too long. Years gone, you could have acquired your learners and went ahead and did your driving test anytime you pleased, probably even the next day. Well, I was not in that lucky bunch. Now, you have to sit and wait SIX months before you can apply for a drivers license after getting your learners permit. I think by the tone of this entire blog entry I was not exactly happy to hear that. The day I acquired my learners, I counted six months away from the day and marked it on my calendar. Everyday from the day I got it, to its sixth month anniversary I woke up and counted how many days I had left.

 2. The Drivers License

Evidently, the day did come where I was finally free to pursue a drivers license, the beautiful month of May. Now, if you are a Jamaican and you are familiar with the system in Jamaica you know that you cannot go to the examination depot in  Jamaica and drive fair and square for your license and get it. You unfortunately have to tip someone off at the depot to acquire it. Years gone it was $20,000JMD or $30,000JMD and it just keeps rising as the years go by, I've heard. I got all my documents ready, including yet another medical which costs $3,500JMD. In the month of June, I was ready to take my test and be done with it. I took my tests which was a second written test and a practical driving exercise in which the inspector asks you to demonstrate driving on the roadways in which I passed. I was then asked to read two sentences back in the office and was given a reasonable date to go the tax office to retrieve my drivers license. I then went home and in the moment thought all the headache was behind me.

 3. The Slow Jamaican Government System

The hardest part was nigh behind me. I would have never guessed that the hardest part of the process was waiting for examination depot to finally communicate with the tax office in regards to my certificate of competence. I did my test the second week in June and now its the second week in July and I am still yet to receive my card. Before leaving the depot on the day of my test, I was told to go to the tax office after one to two weeks time to pick up my license.

That was not true. There is no doubt in my mind that the process will probably take a month or even more. I can absolutely say that all the excitement of finally getting a license has completely fizzled out and I am more or less over the entire thing at this point.

4. The Conclusion

In concluding this blog post, I would like to say to anyone reading this especially those in Jamaica, if you do not yet have a Drivers License, save yourself the heartache and frustration and start the process immediately.