{"id":503019,"date":"2021-07-02T13:36:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T11:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=503019"},"modified":"2021-07-02T13:36:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T11:36:28","slug":"what-to-expect-from-south-africas-new-drivers-licences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/503019\/what-to-expect-from-south-africas-new-drivers-licences\/","title":{"rendered":"What to expect from South Africa&#8217;s new driver&#8217;s licences"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) has published an expression of interest in partners who are willing to help it with the production of driver&#8217;s licences, and the design of a new driver&#8217;s licence card for South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The DLCA is the sole producer of driver\u2019s licences in South Africa, and falls under the Department of Transport as a trading entity.<\/p>\n<p>The authority said it has officially embarked on a project to introduce a new driving licence card which will involve the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-font-name=\"g_d0_f1\" data-angle=\"0\" data-canvas-width=\"480.44064275602966\">A new card design with improved security features;<\/li>\n<li data-font-name=\"g_d0_f1\" data-angle=\"0\" data-canvas-width=\"480.44064275602966\">The card should be durable;<\/li>\n<li data-font-name=\"g_d0_f1\" data-angle=\"0\" data-canvas-width=\"480.44064275602966\">The card should be internationally recognised.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The DLCA has said that the new licence will be aligned closer to international practices, with the new card also allowing for the incorporation of new technologies.<\/p>\n<p>The actual design of the card will also be changed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The introduction of the new driving licence involves a new design of the driving licence card, and the re-engineering of processes to allow for agility and focus on delivering services efficiently and quickly,&#8221; it said in its annual\u00a0performance plan for 2021\/2022<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The project will allow for the adoption of digital technologies such as blockchain and other related technologies which will form the platform an integrated transport system.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Improved turnaround times<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As part of its expression of interest, the DLCA also requested assistance with its production facilities, with the authority hoping to significantly improve licence issuing times in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p>The DLCA said that it currently produces and delivers on average 2.5 million driving licence cards annually.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Using a centralized production model, enrolment data is collected through enrollment units and produced in-house at the DLCA card production facility.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The production process includes verification of data, personalization, quality control and packaging of the cards produced. The cards are then dispatched to the relevant centres.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The current production environment is using old technology which is no longer efficient and must be overhauled.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Complaints around licensing centres<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In May, transport minister Fikile Mbalula\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/492561\/4-changes-for-drivers-in-south-africa-including-longer-hours-at-licensing-centres\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>a number of planned improvements for the renewal process in his department budget speech.<\/p>\n<p>Mbalula said that his department has taken heed of a &#8220;plethora of complaints&#8221; from members of the public around driver and vehicle licencing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe end-game of our interventions is improved service delivery and enhanced efficiency in the functioning of DLTCs, free of corruption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have engaged as the three spheres of government and have agreed on a range of measures that will address the most pressing challenges relating to driver and vehicle licensing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mbalula said that this will include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Longer operating hours at licensing centres;<\/li>\n<li>The use of technology to eliminate queues;<\/li>\n<li>The introduction of an online interface for optometrists and medical practitioners to upload eye test results on the eNatis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p><strong>Read:<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/502609\/south-africas-driving-demerit-system-has-been-delayed-here-are-the-new-plans-and-start-dates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0South Africa\u2019s driving demerit system has been delayed \u2013 here are the new plans and start dates<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) has published an expression of interest in partners who are willing to help it with the production of driver&#8217;s licences and the design of a new driver&#8217;s licence card for South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":309024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-503019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503019"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503049,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503019\/revisions\/503049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}