Why South Africa should say goodbye to driver’s licence cards and car discs

South Africa should scrap the driving licence card and replace it with a digital-only permit that never expires.

That is the view of Rob Handfield-Jones, road safety expert and managing director of driving skills company Driving.co.za.

Handfield-Jones argues that road deaths have only worsened in South Africa since the implementation of expiring driving licence cards. Therefore, they serve no purpose.

“There is no technological or practical obstacle to digital licensing and enforcement,” he told MyBroadband.

“Rather, the problem is the Road Traffic Management Centre’s refusal to give up the revenue streams that go with analogue document production.”

Handfield-Jones said this speaks to the broader issue of the government putting revenue ahead of road safety for almost thirty years.

“Setting aside the question of whether a physical card is needed at all, there is no valid safety, efficiency or social reason for the renewal of driving licence cards,” he said.

“Government has offered a post facto argument over the durability of both the ID book and ID cards, but there is no evidence of this having been a concern prior to 1998, or afterwards for that matter.”

According to Handfield-Jones, if one accepts the “document durability” argument, the government should insist that all other vital official documents be renewed every five years.

“It’s nonsense, but the government has somehow been permitted to advance a narrative that a driving licence is different to almost every other official document,” said Handfield-Jones.

“This is because licence card renewals are a money-making racket.”

Handfield-Jones said no government official has ever supplied a satisfactory reason for separating the driving licence from the ID document, nor for the five-year renewal period.

“Until they do, the only rational conclusion was that it was done solely for the purposes of generating revenue… which the Road Traffic Management Corporation won’t give up without a fight,” he said.

“In my view, the reason the government recently backtracked on extending the renewal period is that the Department of Transport did its sums and realised how much renewal fee revenue would be lost.”

DLCA employee next to the driver’s licence card printer

Regarding the practicality of digital licensing, Handfield-Jones said that the original Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act rollout intended for every traffic officer to carry a digital terminal.

Aarto is South Africa’s new law governing traffic enforcement, which was set to roll out nationally on 1 July.

The envisioned digital terminal would have enabled automatic number plate recognition and central database contact for verifying details.

“Today, a typical smartphone could achieve these functions at low cost, enabling simple roadside verification of both driving licences and vehicle licences too, which should also be digital,” said Handfield-Jones.

“After all, vehicles have a permanent VIN number marking, and are required to have a metal number plate permanently affixed to the vehicle; what need do we still have of a paper licence disc?”

As for the regular eye tests drivers must undergo, Handfield-Jones said this could happen without requiring motorists to get new cards printed.

“The government could easily write a regulation saying that, for example, professional drivers should submit an eye test report every two years, and everyone else every five years,” he argued.

“Also, eye tests don’t have to be done at the DLTC. A certificate issued by any registered optometrist is acceptable in lieu of a DLTC eye test.”

He also had stern words about the carnage on South Africa’s roads.

“Before 1998, South African driving licences had no renewal process, and 1998 was the safest year in our history on our roads,” he said.

“The fatality rate has at least quadrupled since 1998, so there is no evidence that card renewals have been of any benefit.”

Handfield-Jones believes that the increase in fatality rates since 1998 is mostly attributable to people who bought their licences through corrupt means but lack fundamental driving competence.

“That traces back to the 1996 evisceration of the Instructor’s Test and the implementation of the centralised licence booking system shortly afterwards,” he said.

“No other factors can explain the abrupt doubling of fatality rates from 1998 to 2006 after they had declined in a straight line from 1985 onwards.”

Handfield-Jones said one of the reasons Driving.co.za migrated entirely to online training was that he believed it was only a question of time before a bought-licence driver killed one of their instructors during defensive driver training.

“We are talking about people who cannot brake or steer properly, literally the equivalent of a learner with 3–4 hours of instruction under their belts,” he said.

“It is impossible they could have passed a properly-administered government driving test. But they have a valid driving licence card, properly registered on e-Natis.”

He said the outcome of driving licence corruption is probably over 300,000 excess road deaths over the past 25 years.

“But South Africa seems to lack the will to hold the corrupt licensing examiners — and their corruptors — accountable for these crimes,” he said.

“By which I mean that it’s strange that hundreds of thousands of 18-year-old licence applicants seem to know how to buy a licence, but SAPS and the Hawks don’t.”