Online driving license renewal service soon

By SIM LEOI LEOI
thestar.com.my

PUTRAJAYA: Life is about to get easier for the country’s 10.35 million registered drivers – licence renewal will soon be just a click away.

Under an ambitious plan by the Road Transport Department (JPJ), licence renewal will be offered online.

The department’s deputy director-general Solah Mat Hassan said the online renewal service, expected to be available from next month, is for holders of competent driving licences (CDLs), using kiosks situated at testing centres around the country.

Slips will be issued as proof of renewal. Motorists can then have their licences sent to them by post.

Eventually, drivers will be able to renew their licences online from the home computer, Solah told The Star.

There are currently 110 testing centres, but only 25 have such kiosks. However, the department has plans to increase the number of kiosks by another 20 and eventually, to 65.

Under the online system, drivers need only log on to a website and pay for the renewal with their credit card.

The department already offers online services such as e-daftar for the registration of motor vehicles and e-insurans for the payment of insurance premiums.

To ensure that drivers do not forget to renew their licences, the department has even taken it upon itself to send out reminders about a month or two months prior to the expiry date.

There are plans to send out SMS reminders in the future.

Solah said: “We have already started to send out some 5,000 letters to drivers living in the Klang Valley reminding them to renew their driving licences before the expiry date.”

Solah also said the department had plans to link up the databases belonging to the department, the police and the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CVLB) so that all information there would be real-time.

“At present, the public can only pay their summonses at the agencies which issued them. So if you want to pay your police summons, you can’t do it at our department and neither can we lift the blacklist imposed on licences imposed by other agencies.

“But under the system link-up, data can be input real-time,” he said.

However, the plan will be implemented in phases, he said, as the department did not want to cause hardship to those living in rural areas where computers or even credit cards are hardly used.

Compound and Summons

Road Transport Act 1987 and Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board Act 1987 empowers Road Transport Department Officer, traffic police and other authorities such us local councils to serve summons notices as provided by Section 53 & 115 RTA 1987 and Section 45A VLBA 1987.

Any person who has committed an offence breaching the Act, may be served with a notice to appear before a Magistrate court. The Road Transport Department (RTD) and the Royal Malaysian Police may issue summonses based on both the Road Transport Act 1987 and the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board Act.

You can access the following sites to know more about traffic offences:

• Police Department
• Road and Transport Department
• Motor Vehicle (Demerit Points) Rules 1987
• Check and pay traffic summons (www.eservices.com.my)
• Check and pay traffic summons (www.rilek.com.my)
• Check and pay traffic summons (www.myeg.com.my)