K53 road words and definitions explained

What is a vehicle, and what is a motor vehicle?

A vehicle is a device designed or adapted mainly to travel on wheels or crawler tracks. A device that moves only on rails is not a vehicle.

• Motor vehicle: any self-propelled vehicle. Self-propelled means it moves by its own power.
• Trailer: a vehicle that is not self-propelled and is designed or adapted to be drawn (pulled) by a motor vehicle. A trailer still counts as a motor vehicle.
• Vehicle with pedals and an engine: a vehicle that has pedals and an engine or an electric motor is a motor vehicle. It may be moved by the pedals, by the engine or motor, or by both.

What are the different kinds of vehicles called?

Several vehicles are named by how many persons they are designed or adapted to carry. The driver is counted as one of those persons.

• Motor car: designed only or mainly to carry not more than nine persons.
• Minibus: designed only or mainly to carry more than nine but not more than 16 persons.
• Bus: designed to carry more than 16 persons.
• Midibus: designed only or mainly to carry more than 16 but not more than 35 persons.
• Goods vehicle: a motor vehicle designed or adapted to carry goods on a public road.
• Motorcycle: a motor vehicle that has two wheels.
• LMV: Light Motor Vehicle. It is a vehicle of which the tare/gross vehicle mass is not more than 3500 kg.
• Combination of motor vehicles: two or more motor vehicles coupled (joined) together. A vehicle pulling a trailer is a combination.

What do tare, GVM and GCM mean?

All three words are about mass (how heavy something is).

• Tare (T): the mass of the vehicle when it is ready to travel on a road. It includes any spare wheel. It also includes all accessories and equipment that the manufacturer supplies as standard for that model. It does not include fuel.
• GVM (gross vehicle mass): the maximum mass of the vehicle and its load, as specified by the manufacturer.
• GCM (gross combination mass): used for a motor vehicle that draws another motor vehicle. It is the maximum mass of the combination, including the drawing vehicle and the load, as specified by the manufacturer.

A simple way to hold them apart: tare is the vehicle itself, GVM is the vehicle with its full load, and GCM adds what the vehicle pulls.

What are the parts of the road called?

Picture the road from the middle outwards: first the roadway, then the shoulder, then the verge.

• Public road: any road, street, thoroughfare (a way through) or other place that the public commonly uses. It is also any such place to which the public has a right of access. A part of the public is enough. The place does not have to be a thoroughfare. A public road includes the verge. It also includes any bridge, ferry or drift (river crossing) that the road crosses.
• Roadway: the part of the road that is improved, built or meant for vehicle traffic. It lies between the edges of the roadway.
• Edge of the roadway: the boundary between the roadway and the shoulder. An appropriate road traffic sign shows it.
• Shoulder: the part of the road between the edge of the roadway and the kerb line.
• Kerb line: the boundary between the shoulder and the verge. Where a road has no shoulder, it is the part between the edge of the roadway and the verge.
• Verge: the part of the road that is not the roadway or the shoulder. The verge includes the sidewalk.
• Sidewalk: the part of the verge that is meant only for pedestrians (people on foot).
• Traffic lane: a lengthwise division of a public road, wide enough for a single line of vehicles to pass.
• Dedicated lane: a part of the public road reserved, during a certain period, for certain categories of motor vehicles only. An appropriate sign prescribes how the lane is used and which vehicles may use it.
• Traffic island: a physical island that works as a channelizing device (it guides traffic) within a junction or on a public road.
• Freeway: a public road, or a section of one, that an appropriate road traffic sign has designated (named) as a freeway.
• Urban area: the part of a local authority's area that has been divided into erven (plots) by actual survey. It also covers a part that is surrounded by surveyed erven. An urban area includes the public roads that border on it.

What is the difference between an intersection and a junction?

The intersection is the bigger area. The junction is the part inside it where the roadways meet.

• Intersection: the area inside the extended side boundary lines of two or more public roads that join one another. The roads must be open to vehicle traffic. They may join at any angle. It does not matter whether one road crosses the other or not. An intersection includes all parts of the road, such as sidewalks and verges.
• Junction: the part of an intersection that lies inside the extended side limits of the roadways that intersect. It is the area on the improved part of the road. It includes any part of the roadway between those limits. It also includes any stop line or yield line marking painted at the intersection.
• Pedestrian crossing: any part of a public road that an appropriate road traffic sign marks as a pedestrian crossing. At an intersection with no such sign there is still a pedestrian crossing. It is the part of the road inside the continuation or joining of two lines: the kerb line and the boundary line next to it.

What do stop, park, cross and operate mean?

These words describe what is done with a vehicle.

• Stop: the driver brings the vehicle to a standstill.
• Park: to keep a vehicle standing still for longer than is reasonably needed to load or unload persons or goods. The vehicle can be parked whether it is occupied or not. A vehicle is not parked if it stands still because of a cause that the person in charge cannot control.
• Cross: to move on a public road in a direction that cuts across the normal course of travel of traffic on that road.
• Operate: to use or drive a vehicle on a public road. You also operate a vehicle when you permit it to be used or driven on a public road. The same is true when you have it on a public road, or permit it to be there.
• Drawing: pulling a vehicle that is designed or adapted only for being drawn. The motor vehicle that pulls it is designed or adapted only for drawing.
• Towing: pulling a vehicle that is not designed or adapted to be drawn.

Who counts as a driver, an owner or an instructor?

The word driver is much wider than a person behind a steering wheel.

• Driver: any person who drives or attempts (tries) to drive any vehicle. Trying to drive is enough. A person who rides or tries to ride a pedal cycle is a driver. So is a person who leads a draught animal, pack animal or saddle animal, or a herd or flock of animals.
• Owner: the person who has the right to the use and enjoyment of the vehicle.
• Instructor: a person who instructs or teaches for direct reward (for payment). This is a person who instructs another person in the driving of a motor vehicle. It is also a person who teaches the rules of the road or road traffic signs. That teaching is to help someone obtain a learner's licence or a driving licence.
• Professional driving permit: some classes of motor vehicle are prescribed (set down in the rules). A person may drive such a vehicle on a public road only with a professional driving permit issued to that person. The person must keep to the conditions of the permit.
• DLTC: driving licence testing centre.

What are the brakes, lights and signs called?

These are the names the test uses for brakes, lights and signs.

• Service brake: the brake that is ordinarily used to reduce the speed of a vehicle or to stop it. It is normally a footbrake.
• Parking brake: the brake that is ordinarily used to keep a vehicle standing still. It is normally a hand brake.
• Emergency brake: a brake, other than the service brake, that can stop a vehicle.
• Direction indicator: a device fitted to a motor vehicle. The driver uses it to show that he or she intends to change direction to the right or to the left.
• Stop lamp: a device fitted to a vehicle that uses a light to signal that the driver intends to stop or to reduce speed.
• Road traffic sign: a sign for prohibiting, limiting, regulating or controlling traffic on a public road or on a part of one. It may be for traffic in general or for a particular class of traffic.
• Traffic signal: a road traffic sign that uses automatic light signals to direct traffic to stop and to permit it to proceed, one after the other. This is the traffic light (robot).
• Roadworthy: a roadworthy vehicle complies with the relevant provisions of the law. It is also otherwise in a fit condition to be operated on a public road.

What are a number plate and a licence disc?

A number plate is a prescribed (officially set) plate on which the licence number of a motor vehicle is displayed.

A licence disc is a disc that licenses a vehicle to be used on a public road. It is only valid for 12 months. It is fixed on the inside of the windscreen, in the lower left-hand corner, or to a disc holder.

What counts as acceptable identification?

These documents are acceptable identification for a person:

• an identity document
• an identity card issued in terms of the Identification Act, 1997
• a temporary identity certificate
• a valid South African passport issued to a South African citizen
• a driving licence card.

For a person who is not permanently resident in the Republic (South Africa), these are also acceptable:

• an identity document issued by a foreign country
• a traffic register number certificate.

The fine print

• A motor tricycle has three wheels and a motor quadrucycle has four wheels. Both are driven by the type of controls usually fitted to a motorcycle.
• A motorcycle with a sidecar attached is still a motorcycle. The sidecar is not a trailer.
• A motorcycle, a motor tricycle and a motor quadrucycle are not motor cars and not goods vehicles. A motor car, a minibus and a bus are not goods vehicles either.
• A truck-tractor, an adaptor dolly, a converter dolly and a breakdown vehicle are all goods vehicles.
• A midibus is a sub-category of a bus.
• A semi-trailer is a trailer that has no front axle. At least 15 per cent of its tare rests on the vehicle that draws it.
• A truck-tractor is designed or adapted for drawing other vehicles. It carries no load except the load from a semi-trailer or from ballast. A truck-tractor with a semi-trailer is an articulated motor vehicle.
• A tractor is designed or adapted mainly for drawing other vehicles, with a gross combination mass of not more than 24 000kg. A haulage tractor has a gross combination mass of more than 24 000kg.
• If the manufacturer has not specified the GVM or the GCM, it is the maximum mass as determined by the registering authority.
• Tare also includes anything that is a permanent part of the structure of the vehicle, and anything attached that forms a permanent structural alteration.
• A vehicle moved by electrical power from storage batteries and controlled by a pedestrian is not a motor vehicle.
• A vehicle specially designed and built for a person with a physical disability is not a motor vehicle. This holds only if that person alone uses it and its mass does not exceed 230 kilograms.
• The word bridge includes a culvert and a causeway.
• Goods means any movable property.
• Where no road traffic sign shows the edge of the roadway, it is the edge of the bituminous (tar) or concrete surface. On a road without such a surface, it is the edge of the improved part meant for vehicles.
• The front end of a vehicle is the part that sticks out furthest forward. The rear end is the part that sticks out furthest to the rear. Overall length is the distance between the two.
• Overall height is measured from ground level to the highest part of the vehicle or of any load on it.
• Overall width is measured between the points that stick out furthest on each side. Side mirrors and direction indicators are not counted.
• Driving time is any time the driver sits in the driver's seat while the vehicle is operated on a public road. Time in the seat with the engine running also counts.
• The licence disc must be cut out before it is fixed to the vehicle.
• A motor dealer who has a vehicle in order to sell it counts as its owner.
• A professional driver is the driver of a motor vehicle of a prescribed class.
• A number plate can also display a motor trade number.

Numbers to remember

• Nine persons: the most a motor car is designed to carry, driver included
• 16 persons: the most a minibus is designed to carry, driver included (and more than nine)
• More than 16 persons: a bus, driver included
• 35 persons: the most a midibus is designed to carry, driver included (and more than 16)
• 3500 kg: the highest tare/gross vehicle mass of a Light Motor Vehicle (LMV)
• 12 months: how long a licence disc is valid

Mistakes learners make

• Forgetting to count the driver. A motor car carries not more than nine persons, and the driver is one of them.
• Thinking a trailer is not a motor vehicle. In the official rules a trailer counts as a motor vehicle.
• Thinking only a person behind a steering wheel is a driver. A person who rides a pedal cycle or leads animals is also a driver.
• Thinking a car is only parked when nobody is in it. A vehicle can be parked whether it is occupied or not.
• Mixing up tare and GVM. Tare is the mass of the vehicle ready to travel, without fuel. GVM is the maximum mass of the vehicle and its load.
• Mixing up the roadway and the public road. The roadway is only the part for vehicles. The public road also includes the verge.

Test yourself

1. Question 1

   Which ONE of the following is NOT acceptable identification in the case of a person?

   • A A temporary identity certificate
   • B An identity document
   • C A birth certificate
   Show answer

   Answer: C: A birth certificate

   A birth certificate is not on the list; a temporary identity certificate and an identity document are acceptable identification.

2. Question 2

   An identity card is acceptable identification when it is issued in terms of the...

   • A National Road Traffic Act
   • B Road Accident Fund Act
   • C Identification Act, 1997
   Show answer

   Answer: C: Identification Act, 1997

   An identity card issued in terms of the Identification Act, 1997 is acceptable identification.

3. Question 3

   Which passport is acceptable identification in the case of a person?

   • A Any passport issued by a foreign country
   • B A valid South African passport issued to a South African citizen
   • C An expired South African passport
   Show answer

   Answer: B: A valid South African passport issued to a South African citizen

   A valid South African passport issued to a South African citizen is acceptable identification.

4. Question 4

   Which document is acceptable identification in the case of a person not permanently resident in the Republic?

   • A An identity document issued by a foreign country
   • B A work permit issued in the Republic
   • C A letter from the person's employer
   Show answer

   Answer: A: An identity document issued by a foreign country

   A person who does not live in South Africa for good may use an identity document from a foreign country.

5. Question 5

   A person who is not permanently resident in the Republic holds no identity document issued by a foreign country. Which certificate is acceptable identification for such a person?

   • A A roadworthy certificate
   • B A registration certificate of a motor vehicle
   • C A traffic register number certificate
   Show answer

   Answer: C: A traffic register number certificate

   A traffic register number certificate is acceptable identification for a person who does not live in South Africa for good.

6. Question 6

   Acceptable identification includes several documents. Which ONE of the following does NOT qualify as acceptable identification in the case of a person?

   • A A driving licence card
   • B An identity card issued in terms of the Identification Act
   • C A student card issued by a school
   Show answer

   Answer: C: A student card issued by a school

   A student card is not on the list; a driving licence card and an identity card are acceptable identification.