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Alcohol and your driving licence: 0.5 and 0.2 per mille explained

By Mustafa Aybek · maker of Rijtheorie Hub · sources: RVV 1990, cbr.nl · last updated 2026-09-07

Alcohol and fitness to drive is a small topic with a few hard numbers the CBR likes to ask about. Here they are, with a memory hook for each number.

🍺🚗0️⃣5️⃣Experienced driver: maximum 0.5 promille blood alcohol.

Picture a beer glass sliced perfectly in HALF: 0.5 = one half. The experienced driver may only go up to the halfway line, not a drop more.

🔰🍺0️⃣2️⃣Beginner driver (first 5 years): maximum 0.2 promille.

The 2 in 0.2 looks like a swan shaking its head NO: the beginner with the L-plate may have almost nothing. 2 tiny sips and it's already too much.

🔰🖐️🗓️🚗You are a beginner driver for the first 5 years after your first licence (7 years if you started under 18 on a moped).

Hold up your HAND: 5 fingers = 5 years on probation. For five years you wear the invisible green 'beginner' badge.

🔰0️⃣2️⃣🎓0️⃣5️⃣Mnemonic: Beginner = 0.2 (small), Experienced = 0.5 (bigger). More experience, a bit more margin.

Think of stairs: the beginner stands on step 2, the experienced driver climbed 3 steps higher to step 5. Experience climbs from 2 to 5.

🚫🍺👮💸Over the limit: a fine, and with high levels a driving ban or invalidated licence. The safest rule: the designated driver drinks nothing.

Picture the sober driver with a big 0 on his shirt: zero glasses, zero worries. Every drop is a euro out of your pocket.

Novice drivers (licence held less than 5 years, or less than 7 years if your first licence was an AM or T licence obtained before you turned 18) may have a maximum of 0.2 per mille alcohol in their blood.

Think: '2 = too new'. The beginner is still 'almost zero' behind the wheel, so almost no drop: 0.2.

Experienced drivers (licence held 5 years or more) may have a maximum of 0.5 per mille alcohol in their blood.

5 years of experience pairs with 0.5 per mille: the two fives click together, experience and limit rise as one.

Even below the legal limit you may not drive if alcohol makes you unable to drive safely; the police can still take you off the road.

The limit is a ceiling, not a permission slip: wobbling under 0.5 still means getting in = getting pulled out by police.

Some medicines reduce your fitness to drive; check the yellow warning sticker or the leaflet and do not drive if it says driving ability is affected.

Yellow sticker = yellow traffic light: yellow on the box means stop driving, not carry on.

Never drive when tired; fatigue slows your reaction time and can cause a micro-sleep of a few seconds in which you lose control of the vehicle.

A 4-second micro-sleep at 100 km/h = over 100 metres driven blind: your car crosses a football pitch while you 'just' close your eyes.

For fatigue only real rest helps: stop, take a break and sleep if needed; coffee, loud music or an open window are only short, unreliable stopgaps.

Coffee doesn't patch sleep away: it's a plaster on fatigue, only sleep truly recharges the battery.

Why 0.2 for novice drivers?

A novice driver has less routine and has to think more consciously about the driving itself. Alcohol slows down exactly that conscious processing, which is why the margin for novices is almost zero. In practice 0.2 per mille means: do not drink if you drive.

What does the exam ask?

The limits (0.5 and 0.2 per mille) and who counts as a novice driver.
That even below the limit you may not drive if you can no longer drive safely.
Medicines: watch for the yellow sticker and the patient leaflet.
Tiredness: only real rest helps, coffee or music do not.

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