We South Africans may have our differences when it comes to politics, sport, religion and world views but one thing that unites us all (behind beating the All Blacks in rugby or Nigeria in soccer) is the frustratingly long, snaking queues for government services.
At some point we have all had to endure two of life’s greatest equalisers - the queue at Home Affairs and the queue to renew your car licence disc.
To beat the queues, one either has to be at the door of one of these offices at 3am in the morning or pay a wily entrepreneur to keep a spot for you (which often earns you death stares from the other people in the queue).
Recently however, a host of service providers that include Pick ‘n Pay, Supa Quick, the RMTC and the Post Office have begun offering people an easy online option to renew their vehicle licence disc - for a fee that can range from R250 to R79.
The licence disc to both my vehicle and scooter were due at the end of August and after IOL ran a story about a WhatsApp service Supa Quick and Disky had launched to renew your license disc, I decided to try it.
After scanning the QR code on their website which redirects you to WhatsApp you are introduced to a Bot which promptly takes you through a series of steps to complete the application. To renew your licence one needs their license disc, ID card or book and proof of residence.
Once you have all that, following the prompts are very easy and is less than 10 minutes I was able to apply for the licence disc to my car.
After paying for the service, which included a R169 “service fee” Supa Quick and Disky promises to deliver your license disc to the nearest Supa Quick franchise within 10 working days.
Great!
However when it was time for me to renew the licence disc for my scooter I hit a snag. The bot could not validate my number plate.
A day later on August 31 - the day my licence disc expired - I decided to use the Road Traffic Management Corporation’s service after a Facebook friend raved about it in a post.
I was sceptical about this service initially as it is sometimes hard to have faith in the efficiency of a government entity, but I was pleasantly surprised and blown away by the RMTC platform.
In my opinion, it was much easier and more user friendly than Supa Quick and Disky.
After registering and signing into the RMTC platform, the system was able to pick up all my details and there was no need for me to send them a proof of address, my ID and a picture of my license disc as was required by Supa Quick and Disky.
In addition to a R72 fee, RMTC also requires a R99 courier fee that get your license disc delivered to your door. To your door! Wow.
One week later, the licence disc to my scooter was delivered to my door. I was blown away. I had still not heard back from Supa Quick and Disky at this point about my car license disc but did not stress as they did say 10 working days. This week when the 10 working days promise came into effect, I received a WhatsApp from them to say that they were experiencing a delay in renewals in my region and that their support team was working hard to catch up to attend to my renewal.
I hope I get my licence disc soon I am driving around with an expired license for more than 16 days now and the last thing I need is a fine.
On the upside, I always have my scooter.
IOL