CarLicence update in the vehicle licencing world

Another month has presented itself with more challenges in the world of vehicle licence renewals.

Vehicle licence renewals were extended numerous times with the final D-Day being 31 August, with a grace period until 22 September, and yet many people are still awaiting their renewals due to the extensive backlogs at the departments or, worse still, they need to attempt renewing their licence.

The same is apparent with driver licences which is a bigger issue since those motorists in Gauteng and other provinces have been trying for months to get an appointment on the online Natis system. There has been several hindrances for individuals around the country on retrieving their relevant licences. These are mainly due to comorbidities, closure of driving licence testing centres around the country due to positive Covid-19 cases, reduced staff complement and no available online appointments for motorists.

While a number of provisions have been made for driver’s licence applications by The Department of Transport and the Road Traffic Management Corporation, such as a driver licencing services recovery plan, giving individuals that had drivers licences expire or have expired priority on the eNatis booking system, setting aside Tuesday appointments from 6 October 2020 to 31 January 2021 for individuals whose licences have expired or validity has been extended due to lockdown. Pensioners will be assisted on Wednesdays without online bookings. This however has not been the case with vehicle licence renewals where we are still awaiting an update from RTMC.

The current backlog at the department varies week on week and has affected our current turnaround times with vehicle licence renewals significantly. Gauteng renewals are taking between 4 and 12 working days. KZN renewals are taking between 7 and 16 working days (this is the fastest department at the moment in KZN) and reports from KZN indicate this will not improve in the foreseeable future. Limpopo, Free State and Mpumalanga are taking 14-16 working days. The worst affected are currently is still Eastern Cape where licencing is taking 20 to 30 working days for outer lying regions outside PE, East London and Uitenhage. These time frames are averages based on our current renewals, but we will continue to keep you posted with any update with provinces.

-Management team from CarLicence