About

We write about what confuses people who are getting their licence: look-alike rules, ages and categories, how to choose a driving school (escola de condução) and what there is to study with. The tools do the sums the law asks for, such as the date your licence expires.

This English section adapts our Portuguese guides for people in Portugal who prefer to read in English. The official terms are kept in Portuguese, in italics, because that is what you will see at the driving school, in official documents and, unless you take the test with a translator, in the exam, such as exame de código (the theory test). Links to viarapida.pt practice pages lead to Portuguese pages.

How we research

We start from the law and official sources. Ages, deadlines, distances, fines and legal articles come from the Highway Code (Código da Estrada), the driving licence regulation (Regulamento da Habilitação Legal para Conduzir), the IMT (Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes, the public body that issues driving licences) and the Diário da República (the official gazette), in the version in force. The sources for each article are at the end, with the date we checked them.

How we check

Every article goes through a second check, separate from the writing, which confirms each number and each rule again against the source. Anything that cannot be confirmed comes out of the text.

When a rule changes, we correct the article and update the date at the top.

Contact

Found a mistake or a rule that has changed? Write to [email protected]. We correct it and update the article’s date.

Legal information

Melhor Condutor is published in Portugal. Contact: [email protected]. The site is free, sells nothing and has no advertising. Privacy: privacy policy.