Al Tayer approves initiatives to improve drivers and vehicles licensing services

His Excellency Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), has endorsed a package of improvements of drivers licensing and training as well as vehicle testing services. Improvements aim to uplift the level of services offered to clients and upgrade drivers training to enhance traffic safety. 

Initiatives approved include using drones and robots in carrying out site inspections, launching a centralised drivers training system, improving commercial licensing service, digitising drivers licensing, and introducing smart medical testing of drivers. 

Al Tayer stressed on the importance of digitising the licensing services to enable clients to switch to the self-processing of all transactions without human intervention through customer service centres. It is imperative to use artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain technologies to realise the smart transformation vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. This drive also conforms to the directives of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and Chairman of the Executive Council, and His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Vice Chairman of the Executive Council, to rank Dubai the smartest city in the world. Al Tayer noted that measuring up to this level would require the delivering of services exceeding customers expectations and making them happier. 

Performance Indicators

Al Tayer made those comments during a meeting with the directors of the Licensing Agency where he reviewed the performance indicators of the Agency. Till the end of 2019, RTA processed 2.42 million driver licenses and has registered 1.79 million vehicles. The breakdown of transactions processed included 1.2 million transactions related to drivers licensing, 2.5 million transactions of vehicles licensing, and 11,280 transactions of No Objection Certificates to commercial activities. The Licensing Agency delivers 140 services out of 316 services offered by RTA, and customers satisfaction with the licensing services amounted to 94.7%. 

Al Tayer reviewed a host of monitoring and enforcement initiatives that include the use of drones in monitoring trucks avoiding inspection, capturing images of plates of trailers to identify protruding load, load distribution and body safety. Initiatives involved using robots to stop vehicles and direct them to checkpoints, which protects the security and safety of both policemen and inspectors. 

He also reviewed the new generation of monitoring and enforcement system that supports digitisation and improves governance, operational processes and quality control of all licensing services. The system uses smart technologies in inspection and monitoring, provides e-linking of inspections systems, and generates reports as well as instant KPIs. 

Al Tayer reviewed an initiative to automate 65 activities relating to commercial licensing, which will improve customers journey towards issuing commercial transport permit. It reduces the number of visits and time needed, provides a platform built on blockchain technology where various Dubai entities can be part of the issuance of commercial licensing processes such as Dubai Municipality, Department of Economic Development, and the Directorate General of Civil Defense. The initiative slashes visits from nine to two, papers from 13 to 3 and duration from 15 to 5 working days. 

Service Engineering

Initiatives developed also included the digitisation of drivers licensing. It involved the re-engineering of drivers licensing services to make them digital and more accessible. It also included enhancing the governance, security and credibility of customer’s details, and improving drivers licensing services across smart and paperless channels. 

The initiative contributes to the processing of transactions without visiting customer service centres and reducing carbon footprint by cutting carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from 18,000 tons to zero. It also supports Dubai’s paperless transactions strategy, raises digitisation from 56% to 90%, and increases the number of service delivery channels from three to six.

Al Tayer also examined the centralised e-training system for managing, automating and the governance of drivers training processes and services. It controls operations at driving centres and provides detailed training materials to instructors and trainees. The system contributes to the digitisation of all transactions and services, saves details of more than two million training hours per annum, and more than 100 thousand trainees per annum. It saves the printing of 20 million papers and 2,500 plastic cards annually. 

Artificial Intelligence

Among the initiatives, Al Tayer endorsed for the second half of this year is smart medical testing that uses an unprecedented innovative technology worldwide. It adopts the use of artificial intelligence in testing applicants for renewal of driver licenses or driving permit and at the same time issues the license or permit. The initiative saves the service duration from two days to 15 minutes and the service is available 24/7. 

At the end of the gathering, Al Tayer called on attendees to step up their efforts and strive to achieve higher ratings of customers happiness and set customer’s aspirations a priority for RTA.