Methodology
How the Schedule 3 numbers on this site are pinned, tested, and kept honest — so you can judge whether to trust the calculator.
DemeritCheck is operated by Rabbit Hole Digital as an unofficial educational tool. This page explains how we produce the numbers you see — not marketing about road safety. If a figure cannot be traced to a primary instrument, we do not ship it.
What we publish as facts
- Demerit points per charge — Schedule 3, column 6 of the AARTO Regulations, 2026 (GN R.7646, GG 54922).
- Disqualification total — 15 demerit points for natural-person drivers under regulation 20(6). No separate learner or PrDP ceiling appears in the enacted regulations.
- Charge identity — code, wording, statutory reference, and infringement/offence classification as published (including gazette quirks).
- Catalogue size — currently 1694 charges across the NRTA, AARTO Act, provincial/municipal, NLTA, and CBRTA bands we extract.
How extraction works
- Pin a Government Gazette PDF / structured extract for Schedule 3 (dataset id
AARTO-REG-2026-GG54922). - Parse charge rows into version-controlled JSON under
data/source/and band files consumed by the build. - Run automated validation (unique codes, point ranges, band coverage) before a release ships.
- Bump the pin explicitly when a new gazette supersedes the current one — values are not silently edited mid-pin.
We reproduce Schedule wording as published so a driver can match the notice code to the same string in the official instrument. Plain-language explanation sits beside that wording; it does not rewrite the charge data to sound friendlier.
Pending vs final (calculator rule)
The calculator only adds points marked Final toward the running total.Pending rows are visible but contribute zero. That is an educational model of “not yet concluded,” not a live RTIA status feed. If you are unsure, leave the row pending — that understates risk rather than inflating it.
What we refuse to invent
- Proclamation or “demerits go live” dates that are not in a gazette we have read
- A separate learner 6-point threshold (common online; not in Reg 20(6) as enacted)
- Official demerit balances, eNaTIS lookups, or ID-linked history
- Payment amounts, discount percentages, or “you should pay/contest” advice
- Point decay, rehabilitation, or fleet compliance products we do not model
Enforcement honesty
Dataset field enforcementStatus is currently awaiting-proclamation. AARTO Act sections 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 (recording, suspension, cancellation, reduction) were omitted from the June 2026 commencement proclamations that switched on administrative fines in listed municipalities. We repeat that caveat wherever a total could be mistaken for a live licence consequence. Current status brief →
Corrections and review
Gazette mismatches and copy errors go through our corrections process. Educational pages carry a “Last verified” stamp; the canonical legal chronology lives on Updates & sources.
About → · Updates → · Corrections → · What we cannot do → · Disclaimer →