Licensing & Registration

The first step is to take a written exam. This tests your knowledge about the rules of the road. The Saskatchewan Driver’s Handbook and practice quiz can help you prepare. You also need to pass a vision test. You must be 16 years old or older to take driver exams. However, if you are in high school and have taken driver education, you can take the written exam at age 15.

Written exams take place at a driver exam office. You will need to make an appointment with one of these offices. Saskatoon and Regina offices take walk-ins. There is a $25 fee to take the written exam. You will take the exam on a computer at the driver exam office. You must get 80% on the exam to pass.

If you pass the written exam and a vision test, you will get a learner’s licence. This means you can practice driving with an experienced supervising driver. The supervisor must have a valid licence and must sit next to you.

Before you can take the road test, you must practice with your learner’s licence for at least 9 months. You also need to take at least 6 hours of in-class instruction and 6 hours of in-car instruction from a certified driver instructor. Driver instructors will charge a fee for their services. Students in high school can meet these requirements by taking driver’s education through their school.

There is a charge of $55 for a road test. You bring your own car to the road test. Your car must be in good working order. If things are not working, such as brake lights or windshield wipers, you may not be able to take your test. The road test takes about 20 minutes.

During the test, you will drive your car with the exam officer in the passenger seat. You will be tested on things that are part of everyday driving. These things include changing lanes, parallel parking, stopping, turning, and obeying traffic signs and signals.

Points will be taken off for anything you do wrong. If you get 10 or more points off, you will not pass the test. Points will be taken off for things like changing lanes without signalling or being too far from the curb when you park. You could fail because you did a number of minor things wrong. Some things result in an automatic failure. These include speeding, not stopping when required and not yielding to other cars when required. If you do not pass the test, the exam officer will explain why. You will need to wait two weeks before you can take the road test again.

Once you pass the road test, you need to have your learner’s licence updated at a motor licence issuer before you can drive without supervision.

When you first get your Saskatchewan licence there are restrictions on your driving. New drivers include people who get their Saskatchewan driver’s licence based on a licence from another province or country not recognized by SGI. In this case, some restrictions may not apply with proof of past driving experience.

Novice 1 restrictions apply for the first 6 months of driving and include:

• only one passenger who is not immediate family
• every passenger must have a seat belt
• no use of a cell phone, even a hands-free one
• cannot have any alcohol before driving

Once you have driven for 6 months, you will receive your Novice 2 licence in the mail. For the next 12 months, you will be a Novice 2 driver. This has the same restrictions as a Novice 1 driver, but you can have more than one passenger who is not immediate family.

After 12 months, as long as you did not cause an accident or get any traffic tickets, you will graduate to being an experienced driver. Experienced drivers can have passengers who are not wearing a seat belt as long as the passenger is over 16 and all seat belts available are in use. Experienced drivers over the age of 21 can have a low amount of alcohol in their system. For more information about alcohol and driving, see Drinking, Drugs & Driving.

To register a car in Saskatchewan, you must be the owner of the car. You can show you are the owner with a bill of sale. The bill of sale must include the:

• date of the sale
• name of purchaser
• make, model and serial number of the car
• name, address and signature of the seller

You can also register a car that you lease. In this case, you will need the lease agreement.

Once you have registered your car, you will be given a licence plate. You must securely attach it to the rear of your car. It must always be visible. This means that it cannot be covered or be so dirty that the plate number cannot be clearly seen. It also cannot be covered by something that would prevent it from being clearly photographed.

When you register your car, you are also buying basic insurance. This insurance covers damage to your car. It also covers injuries to people or damage to property from a car crash you caused. If you are in a car crash that is your fault, you will have to pay a deductible. You must pay this set amount before the insurance will cover the rest of the cost for repairs and other damages.

You can also buy extra insurance for added protection. It also lowers the amount of the deductible you need to pay if you are at-fault.

Registration and basic insurance costs vary. The cost is based on the type of car being registered. Your age, sex or where you live are not factors in deciding how much you will pay. You can use SGI’s rate calculator to find out how much it will cost per year to register your vehicle. You can pay the full cost when you register your car for the year or set up monthly payments. You can also register your car for less than one year.

The Safe Driver Program is a program administered by SGI that rewards safe driving. All drivers start out at zero on the safety scale. For every year a person drives without being at-fault for a collision or being convicted of certain traffic offences, one point is earned. If you are in a plus position on the scale, you will receive a discount when you insure a vehicle or renew your insurance.

For any at-fault collisions or convictions of certain traffic safety offences, drivers lose points. There are a set number of negative points for different situations. For example, less severe speeding offences result in the loss of 2 points. Exceeding a speed limit by more than 35kmh results in the loss of 4 points. Drivers lose 6 points for a fully at-fault collision where SGI needs to pay out $700 or more. Criminal driving convictions, such as impaired driving, moves drivers directly to ‑20 points or lower.

If losing points puts you below zero, you are in the penalty zone and must pay $50 for every negative point. Even if you stay in the penalty zone, you will not pay again based on those points unless you lose more points. If you lose more points, you will need to pay $50 for the number of negative points that you have in total. For criminal driving offences, the surcharge is $2,500 regardless of the number of points.

You can work your way out of the penalty zone by earning a point for every year of incident free driving. If you have no incidents for 3 consecutive years, you will return to zero on the safety scale.