You must not use a hand-held mobile phone while your vehicle is moving or is stationary in traffic (for example, at traffic lights). You may, however, use a hand-held mobile phone while your vehicle is parked.
- If a person wishes to make or receive a call, including dialling a number and needs to touch any part of the phone to do so, that phone must be mounted (in a mounting commercially designed and manufactured for that purpose).
- If the phone is being used via blue tooth, a headset or earphones without touching, holding or resting the phone on their body, the driver may touch the earpiece or headphone to operate the phone (the phone may be located anywhere in the vehicle, including the driver's pocket or pouch they are wearing).
- It is an offence to create, send or look at a text, video message or email on a mobile phone.
- It is an offence to make or receive a video call on a mobile phone whilst your vehicle is moving.
- Drivers of police or emergency vehicles are exempt.
This does not apply to a driver's aid, such as vehicle system equipment, dispatch system, ticket issuing machine, navigational system, rear view screen, or closed circuit security camera.
Research has shown that using a mobile phone while driving increases crash risk by at least 4 times. There is no safe level of mobile use while driving.
Using the GPS function on a mobile phone while driving
You can use the GPS function on your mobile phone only if the phone is fixed to the vehicle in a commercially designed and manufactured cradle and you do not touch it while you are driving.You will need to set the GPS location on your mobile phone before starting your journey and, if you need to make any changes while you are driving, you will need to pull over and park before making those changes.
Remember, if you are a learner's permit or provisional (P1) licence holder you are prohibited from using any type of mobile phone function while driving. The mobile phone ban includes:
- using hands-free mode including Bluetooth technology
- loud speaker operation
- GPS
- text messaging.
