Driving Hours in Utah: Lessons, Practice and the Road Test

During the course: what the six lessons involve

Utah Code 53-3-505.5 sets the conditions: the car has dual controls and a certified instructor sits in the front. Whether your teen takes the course in high school, at a commercial school or through online home study, the in-car requirement is 6 hours.

There is one permitted shortcut. Approved driving range or simulator time can cover as many as 3 of the 6 hours, converted at rates in the statute. If a school uses this, ask how many range or simulator hours it counts as one hour on the road.

During the course: riding along as an observer

Observation is time spent in the back seat watching a classmate drive and listening to the instructor. DLD notes the state does not mandate it, but Utah high schools include 6 hours, and commercial schools are free to add it.

When you compare quotes, ask whether the advertised hours include observation. Leaving it out is legal, but your teen hears fewer of an instructor's corrections.

At home: how the 40 hours are counted

Under Utah Code 53-3-211, whoever signed for a minor certifies 40 or more hours driven on the permit, with no fewer than 10 at night after sunset. Driving done in the course goes toward the total, and up to 5 hours on a fully interactive simulator may too.

Here is a realistic pace. If your teen drives with you for 90 minutes a week, the 6 course hours plus your sessions reach 40 in a bit over five months, which fits inside the six month hold for a teen under 18.

Adult learners are not off the hook. Utah Code 53-3-210.5 applies the 40 hours to anyone 19 or older who skips drivers ed. Take a course at that age and the 40 hours and the 90 day permit wait both disappear.

At home: choosing who rides along

For a teen under 18, the list of allowed supervisors is short. Mom or dad counts, as do a stepparent, a foster parent and a legal guardian, but only if licensed. So do an approved instructor and the adult who accepted financial responsibility. A parent who does not drive can put a note in writing naming some other licensed adult aged 21 or more.

Once the driver is 18, any licensed driver 21 or older can supervise. Pick the calmest person available. The handbook advises beginning on quiet residential streets and working up to busier city roads and freeways.

Before you pay: making sure the school counts

DLD credits only three kinds of course: a high school program, a commercial school DLD has licensed, and an online home study school DLD has approved. It maintains a list of the approved online schools and cautions that plenty of internet courses are not approved and will be rejected.

Certificates from out-of-state online or home study programs are refused, full stop. An in-person certificate from another state can be used if it meets Utah's hours and is filed with form DLD 200, and any shortfall can be made up at a Utah school.

On test day: what the examiner watches

Examiners grade how your teen sits, steers and stays in a lane; how smoothly the car starts and stops; turns in both directions; backing and U-turns; parking on a slope and between two cars; obedience to signs and signals; and how closely your teen watches at intersections. The handbook adds three-point turns and parallel parking, and DLD has videos of the required maneuvers on its site.

A DLD examiner will only test a 16 year old or older who shows up with a permit and a registered vehicle, seat belts in working order. Your teen gets a single try per day. Three failures mean a new fee, and every attempt has to be finished within six months of paying. A high school or third-party tester can test a 15 year old, but the license itself still waits for 16.