Can a C1 driver's license be upgraded to an A1?
2 Answers
C1 driver's license cannot be directly upgraded to an A1 license. You must first upgrade to a B-class license before you can upgrade to an A-class license. If you already hold a motor vehicle driver's license and wish to apply for an additional permitted driving category, you must have no full-point records in the current scoring cycle and the most recent scoring cycle before the application. For applying to add medium-sized buses, tractors, or large buses to the permitted driving categories, the following conditions must be met: you must have held a C1 license for more than six years and have no full-point records in the two most recent consecutive scoring cycles before the application. Article 15 of the "Regulations on the Application and Use of Motor Vehicle Driver's Licenses" stipulates the following: 1. To apply for adding medium-sized buses to the permitted driving categories: you must have held a license for driving city buses, large trucks, small cars, small automatic transmission cars, low-speed trucks, or three-wheeled cars for more than three years and have no record of 12 points in the three most recent consecutive scoring cycles before the application. 2. To apply for adding tractors to the permitted driving categories: you must have held a license for driving medium-sized buses or large trucks for more than three years, or have held a license for driving large buses for more than one year, and have no record of 12 points in the three most recent consecutive scoring cycles before the application. 3. To apply for adding large buses to the permitted driving categories: you must have held a license for driving city buses, medium-sized buses, or large trucks for more than five years, or have held a license for driving tractors for more than two years, and have no record of 12 points in the five most recent consecutive scoring cycles before the application.
I've looked into this because I came from a C1 license myself and am currently planning to upgrade. You can't directly upgrade from C1 to A1 - there's a step-by-step process. First, you need to upgrade to a Class B license, either B1 for medium buses or B2 for large trucks. After completing this step, you must drive safely for a full 5 years, ensuring you don't accumulate 12 penalty points in any scoring cycle during this period, or your waiting time will be wasted. Once you clear this hurdle, there's an age requirement - you must be at least 26 years old to qualify for A1. If you've been primarily responsible for a fatal accident or have a drunk driving record during this process, this path will be completely blocked. Friends who want to earn money driving large buses should consider switching to B2 early to start accumulating the required years sooner.
