DrinkBuddyWhen can you drive again after drinking?
No waiting time tells you for sure that you are fine to drive. What the law says, what your body does and what you can arrange instead.
Short answer: there is no reliable hour for it. Your body breaks alcohol down slowly, differently for everyone, and no app, table or rule of thumb can tell you it is fine for you. If you still have to drive and you are in doubt, don’t drive.
What the law says
In the Netherlands an experienced driver must stay under the legal limit of alcohol in the blood. The limit for new drivers is lower. These are the limits from our own country data, the same ones the app uses:
| Country | Licence | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| NetherlandsChecked on 17 Oct 2026 | Standard | 0.5 ‰ |
| Novice driverFirst 5 years after getting a licence | 0.2 ‰ |
No country found.
A limit is not a target to drink towards. You can react worse even under the limit, and you stay responsible for what you do in traffic.
What your body does
The liver breaks alcohol down at a pace of roughly 0.1 to 0.25 per mille per hour. That pace differs per person and per day, and you cannot speed it up. Coffee, a cold shower, food or a short nap change nothing about it.
Two things make it hard to name a time:
- You do not know exactly how much you had. Glasses are poured differently and strengths vary.
- An average tells you nothing certain about you. The breakdown pace fluctuates, so even a neat calculation stays an estimate.
That is why DrinkBuddy works with a band, and the battery reads the most cautious edge of that band. It is an estimate, not a guarantee.
The rule. If you are not sure, you don’t drive. Doubt is not a chance to try your luck.
What to arrange instead
- Agree on a designated driver who does not drink, and hold them to it.
- Take a taxi or public transport. Rules on alcohol in traffic apply on a bike too.
- Sleep over or leave the car. The morning after there can still be alcohol in your blood, and you do not always feel it.
Note. This is an estimate, not a measurement. In doubt? Leave the car.
Sources
- Rijksoverheid, Mag ik met alcohol op deelnemen aan het verkeer? (Dutch government, in Dutch)
- Trimbos Institute, Opname en afbraak van alcohol in het lichaam (in Dutch)
- Wetten.nl, Wegenverkeerswet 1994, artikel 8 (also applies to cyclists; in Dutch)
- AlcoholInfo, De afbraak van alcohol (in Dutch)
- AlcoholInfo, Rijden met een kater (in Dutch)
Try DrinkBuddy. See at a glance whether you can drive.