Guess how many drivers are driving around with expired licences
The Department of Transport will up the ante in law enforcement in order to bring to book drivers who are on the road without a licence.
More than 1 million drivers are driving around with expired drivers’ licences. It seems majority are not renewing because they have infringements.
MILLIONS DRIVING WITHOUT LICENCES
Frustrated motorists struggled for the past two years in renewing their drivers’ licence cards. This backlog was due to the Covid-19 restrictions.
While expired licences remained valid over extended periods of time, it was finally cleared on 14 July this year.
Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula said on Friday that he was however concerned by the high number of motorists who are on the roads with expired licences.
At least 1.2 million drivers on the road are driving around such expired licences.
But the law will soon be on the tail of such drivers as it largely contributes to the carnage of driver competence.
“We will therefore up the ante in our law enforcement efforts in order to bring to book these wayward motorists who have no regard for the law or the safety of others on the road.”
Fikile Mbalula
A large part of those with an expired licence, 67%, are aged between 25 and 50 years. 15% are between the ages of 50 and 60 years. 17% are above the age of 60, said Mbalula.
“The most compliant group is those aged 25 years and younger, who account for only 1% of drivers who have yet to renew their driving licence. Our investigations have revealed that the vast majority of those who are not renewing their licences have infringements.”
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DRIVERS’ BACKLOG UP TO DATE
The Transport Department has managed to catch up with the backlog. To date, more than 2 million drivers’ licence cards have been produced, Mbalula said.
“Not only have we been able to reduce the turn-around time for our card production to pre-Covid levels, but we have also now improved on those levels.”
The department is introducing a smart enrolment solution to improve the services to motorists. This is to reduce the turnaround times at driving licence testing centres (DLTC).
“This solution has been successfully piloted at Waterfall and Eco-Park Centurion DLTCs and the Gauteng province will be the first to go live in March 2023, before the full deployment to other provinces,” said Mbalula.
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