The Driver Licence Register (DLR) is a national register of all driver licences in New Zealand and includes any convictions for traffic offences.
The purpose of the driver licensing system is to make sure that everyone who drives on New Zealand roads has the skills and knowledge necessary to be a safe driver, and the DLR provides a reliable source to evidence that.
The Land Transport Act 1998 (LTA) sets out the personal information to be held on the DLR including:
Information contained in conditions on a licence can include sensitive personal information about the licence holder’s health such as epilepsy or diabetes.
The Courts and NZ Police regularly update Waka Kotahi with information on traffic offences, disqualifications, suspensions and revocations. This information is also held on the DLR, and can include sensitive data about a licence holder’s health (for example if they have a medical condition which may impact their driving), and certain alcohol related conditions such as alcohol interlocks and zero alcohol licences.
The DLR will also show whether a licence holder has a potentially sensitive status, such as diplomatic status.
In addition to information mandated by the LTA, the DLR also holds email addresses and phone numbers of licence holders who have provided this information on an optional basis.
You, or someone with your consent, can access your driver licence number and information about demerit points.
On payment of a fee, any person wanting to know information about a person or driver licence in the DLR (provided they supply sufficent particulars on that person or licence to identify the correct DLR record), can be given a licence expiry date, the class or classes of vehicle to which a licence applies, endorsements, conditions, court orders pertaining to a licence including disqualifications, suspensions, revocations (including prohibitions placed on the holder driving a transport service vehicle), alcohol interlocks and zero alcohol licences, demerit points, organ donation information, whether the licence is limited and information about cancellation of a licence stop order, may also access those details. This excludes access to the photo on your driver licence.
A medical practitioner may also access information about your organ donation status without needing to pay a fee.
Waka Kotahi employees may also access your DLR record, but only if required for their role.
The Privacy Act permits Waka Kotahi to share identifying information in the DLR with some Government agencies for limited and specific purposes. Examples include:
Driver Check helps companies make sure they only have appropriately-licensed drivers driving their company vehicles. It's a safe and secure website set up by Waka Kotahi. Companies can use Driver Check to check the driver licence status for their drivers. If a driver licence status changes, Driver Check automatically lets the company know.
We store your information on dedicated secure servers. To read more about how we keep your information secure click on the link below.
You can ask questions, request access to, and correction of, your information. Please refer to the 'Requesting access to or correction of your information' section for more information.
Requesting access to or correction of your information
If you have a complaint about how we handled your personal information, please refer to the 'Privacy complaints' section.
