Tips on getting and renewing your driving licence

Oct 22, 2020

For the one year licence you get an assessment and pay sh50,000 at the bank and sh80,000 at Face Technologies. Those seeking to get a learners riding or leaners driving permit have to pay sh30,000 at Face Technologies after assessment at URA.

MOTORING

Following the six months lockdown, many people found that their driving permits were expired or about to expire.
With an expired or lost driving permit, you can face challenges with the traffic Police.

An official at Face Technologies, the company issuing computerised driving permits said when you go to renew your permit carry your national identity card and original driving permit.

You have to undertake assessments for the payments to make at the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) offices or commercial banks accredited by URA to collect fees and revenues.

Face Technologies offices located at Kyambogo Industrial Area  operates between 9:00am to 3:00pm on weekdays. On Saturday it opens between 7:30am to 3:00pm. It is closed on Sundays and public holidays.

At Face Technologies there are many seats separated to maintain social distance. There are hand washing and hand sanitising facilities. The security teams at the premises require the public to wear facemasks properly. When you arrive, you submit your documents and take a seat. As you wait seated, your name will be read over a loud speaker.

You are then guided to the counter to go to. While inside the counter part of processes involves taking your photograph and fingerprints. Doctors advise that you are properly hydrated and fed to enable easy reading of your finger prints.

While entering the main gate at Face Technologies, the security team studies your documents to ensure you have the right paper work.
To renew a permit for three years, you get an assessment from URA which costs sh130,000 and you pay at one of the URA accredited banks.

There are banks with URA counters that can do the assessment and you pay. After assessment you will pay sh80,000 at Face Technologies for the permit.

For the one year licence you get an assessment and pay sh50,000 at the bank and sh80,000 at Face Technologies. Those seeking to get a learners riding or leaners driving permit have to pay sh30,000 at Face Technologies after assessment at URA.

At the moment Face Technologies is not issuing the driving permit for the five year period.As part of the process of getting a learners licence, you have to carry out eye tests.

You get a form signed by a medical practitioner, after examining your eyes showing your sight is fine for driving. As part of the process of getting a new riding or driving permit you have to pay test fees of sh27,000. For those that want to include the riding permit on their driving permit you have an extension fee of sh41,000 after assessment by URA.

The Traffic and Road Safety Act, 1998 (Amendment) Act, 2020 introduces a driving licence with validity of five years in addition to one and three years. Under the law, holders of group licences (motor cycles) can extend to group B (motor cycles) without having to acquire another driving licence.

The act introduces a professional driving licence for drivers of commercial vehicles.

While on the road, drivers are required to be in physical possession of a copy of a valid driving licence and a copy of the registration book while driving, copies include images on mobile phones.

During the sale and purchase of vehicles, both the buyer and the seller have a duty to transfer a motor vehicle unlike the previous law where responsibility was vested to only the buyer. The new driving licences meet international standards, which can enable Ugandans drive within the East African Community and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)

Effective December 1, Ugandans applying for driving licences will do so through a new company, the Uganda Security Printing Company (USPC).

Government has challenged the new service provider to provide a better system that will reduce the turnaround time of issuing a driving licence from the current one hour to about 30 minutes.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});