RE: Drivers kick against smart driver’s licence

The attention of the management of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) has been drawn to some reactions from certain quarters, including the Ghana Drivers and Car Owners Association, after stories emerged from the press conference the Authority organised to brief the media on the launch of a new Smart Driver’s Licence and Vehicle Registration Smart Card by the Authority to facilitate service delivery.

Management wishes to explain that:

1. The Authority is not seeking to alter the current licensing process and that the processes for acquiring a driver’s licence will remain the same when the new licence is rolled out. Rather, the Authority expects that the in-house printing of the licence will ensure a very significant reduction in the time for the printing of the licence.

2. The Road Traffic Regulation L. I. 2180 of 2012 has already made provision for the Authority to restrict drivers who use Automatic cars for their driving test to be restricted to driving automatic cars only. This is because the skills required for driving an automatic car is different from what is required to drive a manual car. Regulation 28, subsection 5 (a) of L. I. 2180 states very clearly that the Authority should “Where a person has passed a driving test to the satisfaction of the examiner, the examiner shall issue the applicant a certificate as set out in Form L of the First Schedule, stating ‘the class or type of motor vehicle on which the applicant was tested’. In effect, what the Authority has done is to simply indicate the type of vehicle, whether it is automatic or manual on the licence I order to enhance enforcement and road safety not to place undue hardship on drivers. For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to clarify that persons who use manual vehicle for their driving test are allowed to drive automatic cars also but not vice versa.

We wish to explain, generally, that the introduction of the new licence is aimed at drastically reducing the incidence of faking of the driver’s licence which has been a huge drain on the resources of both the Authority and the government and deprived government of an important source of revenue for development.

There is no gainsaying that the reduction in fake licensing would also impact road safety very significantly because it will ensure that only qualified drivers, who could be trusted to drive effectively on our roads, will be driving and this will ultimately lead to a reduction of the carnage we see on our roads almost on a daily basis.

C. W. MUSAH DIRECTOR, DRIVER TRAINING, TESTING AND LICENSING

General News of Wednesday, 25 October 2017

Source: classfmonline.com

Drivers kick against ‘smart’ licence

The Ghana Drivers and Car Owners Association has kicked against moves by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to introduce a new smart driving licence.

The new smart licence comes with a security embedded chip to discourage counterfeiting.

The chip will contain the driver’s information which will be linked to the new national identification system in a safe manner.

But the association says the DVLA should “refrain from trying to alter the current licensing process for drivers” or face the wrath of its members.

The association said after a careful study of the new system, it has come to the conclusion that the new licence will not only create severe inconveniences but also derail its members’ work.

“An instance is when an already-licensed driver will have to pay before he is given the digital licence by the DVLA,” a statement from the association said.

The association also argued that “under the new module, drivers who present automatic vehicles to the DVLA during the acquisition of a licence shall not be permitted to drive any manual vehicle whereas our road regulations have not made any specific biased guidelines in favour of the manual or automatic vehicles.”

“We find this move not only as a money-making venture to some self-seeking individuals but also a move that will totally subject us to police intimidation and, therefore, call on all stakeholders in the transport sector to kick against this proposal,” the statement added.