We tested the Post Office’s online car licence disc renewal — and made it work

The South African Post Office’s online vehicle licence renewal service works — if you are willing to wait substantially longer than it claims to get your disc to you.

The Post Office recently joined a wide range of private service providers who offer renewals and delivery of motor vehicle licences discs.

With no administration charge and a delivery fee of just R75, its service is the cheapest one around.

Given that it was launched within a month of my vehicle licence disc expiring, I decided to give it a try, despite the Post Office’s infamous reputation for delays and lost packages.

To use the service, I first had to sign up for an account on www.sapomvl.co.za.

For this, I had to provide personal details including my full name, ID number, and contact info.

I was offered a choice between my email address or mobile number via WhatsApp as a contact method.

I was then required to enter an email address and create a password for my account. The images below show these steps.

To verify my account, I had to provide a one-time code sent to my phone number via WhatsApp, which was my preferred method of contact.

Although I received my code promptly, another MyBroadband colleague initially experienced issues with this step. A day later, he had no problems getting his code.

Once I had verified my account, I logged in and was presented with a dashboard with empty “Applications” and “Quotes” sections.

On the left, I selected the “Create Quote” tab, which presented a page with some of my details already pre-populated.

At the bottom of this page was an option to add a vehicle, which I opted to do first before filling out other information.

A window popped up in which I had to enter details such as my car’s licence number, register number, make, model, mileage, location, tare weight, and licence expiry date.

Once completed, I had to sign digitally using the mouse or my laptop’s touch screen to confirm all the details were correct.

Once this was done, I added all my address information and provided our office address for delivery. I also had to submit a certified copy of my ID and proof of address, for which I used an insurance cover letter.

During this process, I only encountered one issue — the location service that automatically detects the nearest post office that processes motor vehicle licence applications did not work for Gauteng.

As this was a compulsory field, I was unable to proceed with payment.

Had it not been for this slight niggle, the entire process, from signup to payment, would likely have taken less than 15 minutes.

I logged the issue using the “Contact Us” tab on the website, where I labelled it as a “Technical Issue” with a short description of the problem. A reference number was sent to my email and WhatsApp number.

This was at around 10:30 in the morning.

The issue was resolved by 15:40 when I managed to complete the process and make payment using Masterpass scan to pay via my FNB app.

After approving the payment on my app, the website presented me with a server error.

Fortunately, the payment appeared to have been processed, as my dashboard now showed the application had been paid.

Because of the tare of my vehicle, my licence fee was R504. With the courier fee of R75, the total amount came to R579.

Then began the great wait.

The Post Office claims a turnaround time of three business days for the service, with an additional two days for outlying areas.

Given that our office is located within 10 km of Lyttelton Post Office, it was reasonable to assume we would fall under the 3-day category. But this was not be.

On Friday, 4 February 2022, four days after submitting my application, I received the first communication from the Post Office, notifying me that my application had been completed and was ready for dispatch.

Confusingly, the next day I received an SMS that my application had been received and was being processed. This message should probably have arrived before the WhatsApp message.

About three hours later, another WhatsApp notification notified me that my application was completed and ready for delivery. I was then provided with a waybill/tracking number.

However, this tracking number only worked on SAPO’s tracking site from the afternoon of Tuesday, 8 February 2022.

The package remained “In transit” at the Lyttelton Post Office throughout Wednesday. On Thursday, the tracking website did not work.

Finally, at 14:15 on Thursday, 10 February 2022, I received a call from the courier, who had arrived at my home address for the delivery, instead of the office address I had indicated for delivery.

This was a bit of a nuisance, particularly given that there was no indication from the Post Office that my order was out for delivery on the day, as is standard with many private couriers.

Fortunately, someone was at my house and able to take delivery.

The table below summarises the renewal process from start to finish.

Now read: SA Post Office’s Speed Services tested — and compared with other courier services