"Can my son take it to the show?" is one of the most common questions we get, closely followed by "can my partner drive it if I am not in the car?". The published rules answer both, and the answer is less restrictive than most owners expect — with one real trap for probationary and learner drivers.
Can someone other than the permit holder drive a club permit car?
Yes. Nothing in the Victorian club permit rules limits driving to the permit holder. The rule Transport Victoria actually publishes is that you must "make sure anyone driving the vehicle follows their licence conditions". That wording assumes other people will drive it. What it does is push the responsibility for their licence back onto you as the permit holder.
The obligations that stay with you personally are membership of an approved club, keeping the logbook, telling VicRoads when the vehicle's details change, presenting the vehicle for an audit inspection if asked, and following any operating conditions on the permit while carrying the certificate of approved operations. None of those transfer to a borrower, which is why "follows their licence conditions" is your problem, not theirs.
Can a P-plater drive a club permit car?
It depends entirely on whether the car has been modified for performance. Transport Victoria's rule is specific: probationary drivers cannot drive a vehicle if someone other than the manufacturer has modified it to increase the vehicle's performance, and the same page says in terms that this includes cars with a club permit. A factory-standard car on club plates is not caught by that sentence. A car with a fitted turbo, a swapped engine or worked heads is.
Note what the rule turns on. It is not the age of the car, not its power output on its own, and not whether the modification was engineered or approved. It is whether someone other than the manufacturer modified it to increase performance. A club permit car that has been restored to standard is in a different position from one that has been improved, even where both are equally quick.
Two practical consequences. First, a modified club permit car is off limits to a probationary driver even for a short trip, and no logbook entry makes that legal. Second, the rest of the probationary licence conditions apply as they always do — the club permit changes none of them.
Can a learner driver drive a club permit vehicle?
The club permit rules add nothing specific about learners, which means the general instruction governs: the driver has to follow their own licence conditions. For a learner that includes the supervision requirement and everything else attached to a learner permit. The restriction on performance-modified vehicles reaches learner drivers on the same basis as probationary ones.
A club permit car is often exactly the wrong car for teaching someone to drive anyway, for a reason that has nothing to do with the rules: every lesson burns a permit day. With only 45 or 90 days a year, driving practice is an expensive way to spend the allowance.
Who fills in the logbook when someone else drives?
One entry per day, made by the first driver. The rule is that a logbook entry is required every time the vehicle is driven more than 100 metres from its garage address, and where the vehicle is driven multiple times in a day, only the first use by the first driver is recorded. If you take it out in the morning and hand the keys over in the afternoon, the morning entry covers both trips.
Two rules catch people out. Entries are never written for future journeys, so you cannot pre-fill a page before handing over the keys. And a trip spanning midnight takes an entry for each day — a run home from a Saturday night event costs the Sunday as well. Our club permit rules and logbook guide covers each of these with worked examples.
Does the driver need to be a club member?
The published rules put the membership obligation on keeping your club permit: to keep it, you must be a member of an approved club or association, and if you switch clubs you cannot have a gap longer than 14 days between memberships. There is no separate rule requiring each individual driver to hold a membership of their own.
That is the reading of the rules as published, not a licence to be creative. If your arrangement is unusual — a company-held permit, a vehicle shared between households, an executor driving an estate vehicle — confirm the position with VicRoads before you rely on it.
What about a motorcycle on a club permit?
The same principle, with an extra line. Transport Victoria states that if you are riding a motorcycle with a club permit, you follow the relevant motorcycle licence restrictions. So a rider on a restricted licence is limited to the machines their licence allows, club permit or not, and the performance-modification restriction reaches motorcycles as it does cars.
What happens if the wrong person drives it?
Two separate consequences stack up. The driver has breached their own licence conditions, which is dealt with under the licensing rules and has nothing to do with the permit. Separately, Transport Victoria's wording on the permit is blunt: if you do not follow club permit rules you may be fined, and VicRoads may suspend or cancel the club permit. VicRoads can also require an audit inspection at any time.
There is an insurance dimension too. Most policies written for club permit vehicles assume the permit conditions are being met, so a claim arising from a trip that should never have happened is an awkward conversation. If you are not sure the car qualifies as unmodified for these purposes, our eligibility guide explains where the line between standard and modified sits.
Driver rules read from the Transport Victoria club permit rules page and the VicRoads club permit pages on 4 September 2026.
Questions
Does the driver have to be the club permit holder?
No. The published rules do not restrict driving to the permit holder. What they require is that anyone driving the vehicle follows their own licence conditions, and that the logbook is filled in correctly for the day. Lending the car to a partner, a friend or an adult child is not a breach.
Can a P-plater drive a club permit car?
Sometimes. Transport Victoria states that probationary drivers cannot drive a vehicle that someone other than the manufacturer has modified to increase its performance, and says explicitly that this includes cars with a club permit. A standard, unmodified club permit car is a different matter.
Can a learner driver drive a club permit vehicle?
The same rule applies: a learner has to follow their own licence conditions, including supervision requirements, and a learner is also caught by the restriction on performance-modified vehicles. Nothing in the club permit rules adds a separate prohibition on learners.
Who fills in the logbook if someone else drives?
One entry covers the day. The rule is that where a vehicle is driven several times in a day, only the first use by the first driver is recorded. So if you drive it in the morning and someone else takes it out that afternoon, the morning entry is the entry for that day.
Does the driver need to be a member of the club?
The membership obligation sits on keeping the permit, not on each driver: the permit holder must be a member of an approved club. Nothing in the published rules requires every driver to hold their own membership. If your situation is unusual, confirm it with VicRoads before you rely on it.
Club Plate Co endorses your club permit online — no meetings, no club nights.