There is no evidence that demerit points systems are more effective than regular recidivism schemes for the prevention of driving under the influence of alcohol recidivism in this offence. Research shows that alcohol offenders are influenced by the likelihood of being checked, but little or no effect was found for the severity of a penalty (see archived SWOV Fact sheet Penalties in traffic).
For the Dutch driver the demerit points licence for alcohol offenders has been in force since 1 June 2011. The scheme entails that the driving licence is automatically declared invalid by law if a driver is irrevocably convicted twice within five years for driving under the influence and at the second offence a blood alcohol content of more than 1.3 g/l is measured.
An evaluation study [14] establishes that the effectiveness of the demerit points system for alcohol offenders is limited because the system:
- is hardly or not at all known to a wider audience;
- is not known among the risk group of drivers;
- make insufficient use of the possibilities for behaviour change; and
- in practice affects a relatively small group: during the period 2011-2014 the driver’s licence of 700 people was automatically declared invalid.
