Drink driving penalties in QLD by range and what each one triggers

Queensland has several drink driving limits rather than one, and which of them applied to you is decided by your licence and what you were driving as well as by the reading itself.

The band you fall into decides more than the name of the offence. It decides whether you are off the road tonight or off the road until your matter finishes, whether a work licence is even available to you, and whether an interlock follows your disqualification. Those consequences are structural, in that they follow from the band rather than from anything argued on the day.

The sections below set out what each range triggers.

The drink driving limits in QLD

The no alcohol limit applies to learner, provisional and restricted licence holders, and to specified drivers such as truck, bus and taxi drivers. For them, anything above zero is an offence.

The general limit of 0.05 applies to open licence holders. Between 0.05 and under 0.10 is the low range.

The middle limit is 0.10, and from 0.10 to under 0.15 is the middle range.

The high limit is 0.15. At 0.15 and above you are treated as being under the influence, and that changes your position substantially.

Low range, 0.05 to under 0.10

Your licence is suspended for at least 24 hours from the time the reading is confirmed. After that you are generally back driving until your court date.

A work licence is possible in this band if you meet the eligibility rules, and there are a lot of them. You need to have held an open licence at the time, you cannot have been driving for work when it happened, and you cannot have had a drink or drug driving conviction, a dangerous driving conviction, or a licence suspension, cancellation or disqualification in the previous five years.

No interlock requirement follows a low range conviction on its own.

On conviction you are disqualified. The magistrate sets how long within the range the law allows for the offence.

No alcohol limit offences

This band catches learners, P platers and anyone on a zero limit licence, and it is worse than the numbers suggest.

The reading may be tiny, but that does not help much, because a work licence is not available to someone who was on a zero limit category at the time of the offence. The band that looks mildest on paper is one where the option most people are hoping for is closed from the start.

The roadside suspension works the same way as for the low range, although the disqualification range differs.

Middle range, 0.10 to under 0.15

At this level your licence is suspended immediately, and that suspension runs until your charge is finished at court. Instead of 24 hours, it lasts however long your matter takes, including every adjournment.

A work licence is still possible in this band, since the cut off is 0.15, but it arrives with something attached. A conviction at 0.10 or above brings an interlock requirement, and that applies to a work licence too. People fight hard for the work licence and then get blindsided by the interlock sitting on top of it.

On conviction there is a disqualification and then the interlock period, which does not begin until you have a licence with the condition on it and a device fitted.

High range, 0.15 and over, and under the influence

At 0.15 and above you are treated as being under the influence, and the consequences follow that rather than the reading.

Your licence is suspended immediately until the matter is finished. A work licence is not available, however strong your grounds or your affidavits, because the band itself rules it out.

The disqualification carries a minimum the court cannot go below, so unlike the lower bands there is no scope to argue it down. An interlock requirement also follows.

Refusing a test and failing to provide a specimen

This needs getting right because the two get talked about as though they are one offence.

Refusing the screening test at the roadside is its own offence with its own maximum.

Failing to provide a specimen of breath or blood for analysis, after a police officer has required it, is a different and more serious matter. It is treated as the same offence as driving under the influence, which means the same punishment, the same disqualification consequences and the same work licence position, which is that it is not available.

So saying "I refused the test" does not tell you where you stand, because what matters is which refusal it was.

Repeat offences and the five year look back

Where you have prior matters inside five years, the bands escalate. Maximums rise, disqualification periods lengthen, and at the serious end a court is required to impose imprisonment as the whole or part of the punishment for a third under the influence type conviction within five years.

The look back covers more than convictions. Licence suspensions, cancellations and disqualifications inside five years can rule out a work licence even where they had nothing to do with alcohol. Get your traffic history rather than relying on memory.

Disqualification is not the same as suspension

People use the words interchangeably and they are different things that start and end differently.

A suspension happens before court, either for 24 hours at the roadside or running through to the end of your matter. A disqualification is imposed by the magistrate at the end. Time already spent on an immediate suspension does not automatically come off the end of a disqualification, so do not count on it without asking. Our piece on licence suspension and disqualification sets out all four ways a Queensland licence comes off you.

Penalties from 1 December 2026

The bands themselves do not change on 1 December 2026, and neither do the maximum penalties for drink driving offences, whatever you have read about penalties doubling, which applies to drug driving.

From that date, where a court deals with a drink driving matter by way of a fine, that fine has to be at least a set minimum for the offence, subject to a small number of exceptions including where the court imposes something other than a fine.

Driving with alcohol over the limit and a drug present at the same time is also a combined offence from that date, and no work licence is available for it. The detail is in our piece on the new drink driving laws.

Common questions

What is the drink driving limit in QLD?

It depends on your licence and vehicle. Open licence holders have a general limit of 0.05. Learner, provisional and restricted licence holders, and specified drivers such as truck, bus and taxi drivers, have a no alcohol limit, meaning anything above zero.

Is mid range drink driving worse than low range?

Structurally, yes, and in ways that go beyond the penalty. A mid range charge suspends your licence until your matter finishes rather than for 24 hours, and a conviction brings an interlock requirement that a low range conviction does not.

Can I get a work licence for high range drink driving?

No. At 0.15 and above, or where you are convicted of driving under the influence, a work licence is not available.

Does a low reading on a P plate count as low range?

No. If you are on a zero limit licence, you are dealt with under the no alcohol limit provisions rather than the low range, and a work licence is not available to you.

If you are trying to work out where you sit

The band decides most of what is open to you, and the wording on your paperwork decides the band. That is worth establishing properly before you make plans around driving, work or anything else.

We act in drink driving and traffic matters in Cairns and across Far North Queensland. If you are not sure which range applies to you or what it closes off, we can go through it.

If you have been charged with drink driving in Cairns and you are not sure what your reading means, speak with us before your court date.