Your right to drive can be downgraded (categories can be removed from your driving licence) either at your own request or by the police. You can use this page to check if downgrading the right to drive may be topical for you.
What does downgrading the right to drive mean?
Downgrading the right to drive means removing categories from a driving licence. When your right to drive is downgraded, the right to drive group 2 vehicles (lorries and buses) is removed from you.
Downgrading the right to drive does not affect other driving licence categories, such as the right to drive a passenger car or a motorcycle.
When can you downgrade your right to drive yourself?
You may request a downgrade of your right to drive at any time. Downgrading the right to drive may become topical, for example, when you no longer need a driving licence for a lorry or a bus and do not want to submit medical reports to the police based on your age.
Do the following
Book an appointment at an Ajovarma service point
If you want to downgrade your right to drive, you must visit an Ajovarma service point in person. You can authorise another person to act on your behalf with a power of attorney if necessary.
Power of attorney for permit services in road transport (in Finnish and Swedish)
Bring your driving licence
Bring your driving licence with you when visiting the service point.
Fill in the notification of downgrading the right to drive
You can receive the notification form from the service point.
Alternatively, you can print and fill out the form in advance. The notification cannot be sent by post but must be delivered in person to a service point.
Hand over your driving licence to Ajovarma
Hand over your driving licence to Ajovarma when submitting the downgrading notification.
Your downgraded right to drive takes effect as soon as you submit the notification.
You will receive a temporary driving licence
You will receive a temporary driving licence from Ajovarma, which you can use until you receive the actual driving licence. You can use the temporary driving licence in Finland and other Nordic countries.
Order a new driving licence
Once your right to drive has been downgraded, order a new driving licence by submitting a driving licence application at the Ajovarma service point.
You can also order a new driving licence in Traficom's My e-Services. Use the Order a new driving licence service.
The driving licence is sent to your home address
You will receive your driving licence to your home address by post in approximately 2 weeks.
You may also downgrade your right to drive when your driving licence is about to expire and must be renewed. In this case, book an appointment for renewing your driving licence at an Ajovarma service point. You cannot downgrade your right to drive online. At Ajovarma, fill in the driving licence permit application and the notification of downgrading the right to drive.
Police downgrading the right to drive – order a new driving licence
During the validity of the driving licence, fitness to drive is monitored by the police. When your driving licence is valid, only the police can downgrade your right to drive based on a medical report or a reason other than your request.
Downgrading your right to drive may be necessary if you no longer meet the health requirements for your driving licence or other permit conditions. The police may downgrade your right to drive, for example, if you have submitted a medical report on your fitness to drive based on your age, but the report shows that you no longer meet the health requirements for all the driving licence categories. The police may downgrade your right to drive to match the vehicle category for which you can obtain a driving licence.
If you are obliged to submit a medical report to the police based on your age but do not want or need the group 2 right to drive (lorries and buses), you can ask the police to downgrade your right to drive. In this case, you do not have to see a physician.
When the police downgrade your right to drive, hand over your old driving licence to the police. You will receive a temporary driving licence from the police if necessary. After this, order a new driving licence in Traficom's My e-Services. Use the Order a new driving licence service.
Alternatively, you can order a new driving licence by submitting a driving licence application at an Ajovarma service point.