South African motorists are finally able to apply for a new vehicle licence disk online. Well, they haven’t been able to for a while. But this time it’s via an official government channel. The South African Post Office has launched a web portal that does just that.
Third-party vehicle licensing services are extremely common in SA, with even big names like Pick n Pay and FNB jumping on the bandwagon. This mostly just means motorists get to pay a premium for them to facilitate the renewal. These vendors typically offer a lead time of a few weeks, and delivery to your door costs an additional fee.
At the same time, local motorists were long able to renew vehicle licence disks via the national Post Office. Just pitch, stand in line (sometimes for hours), pay the set fee and receive your disk right there. That bit is moving online now, if you prefer it that way.
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This new service allows users to go online via any connected device, input details, make a payment, and choose to either:
- Courier the disk to your door for a set fee of R75, or
- Collect from your nearest Post Office.
“Payment is done safely and securely through Masterpass, which the user can download from the Google Play Store for Android devices and the Apple App Store for Apple devices.”
“No commission is charged on the renewal transaction. The cost of delivery to door is R75 and there is no charge to the customer when it is collected from a Post Office counter,” the national service says.
Once registered and applied for online, users receive a confirmation SMS when the disk arrives at the selected Post Office or when it’s out for delivery. We know what you’re thinking: the Post Office is finally attempting to live up to its purpose of delivering things.
It’s offering a turnaround time of three working days for metros, and five working days for outlying areas. The service is currently live, and is available to motorists in all the South African provinces except the Western Cape.