Remove deadline to change driver's license to plastic card

The Ministry of Transport will remove the deadline for changing car driving licenses from cardboard to PET material, instead of December 31, 2016.

On 112th, although it was not too crowded, many people still had to wait to receive PET plastic driving licenses - Photo: Chi Tue

The Ministry of Transport confirmed this in a statement issued on the afternoon of December 1 regarding the conversion of driving licenses to PET material. The removal of the above time limit also applies to A4 licenses (issued to drivers of tractors with a load capacity of up to 1 ton). The phenomenon of people having to jostle and wait has significantly reduced…

Received a lot of response?

According to the Ministry of Transport, cardboard driving licenses for cars and tractors will still be used until they expire.

The Ministry of Transport has announced that it will abolish the regulation: after 6 months from December 31, 2016, people with cardboard car driving licenses who do not change to PET material will have to retake the theory test to get a new driving license (as stipulated in Circular No. 58/2015). However, motorcycle driving licenses of all types will still be on the roadmap to change with the deadline of December 31, 2020.

Although the regulation had to be removed, the Ministry of Transport still believes that the conversion to a new driving license made of PET material has been positively responded to by many people because it brings both the card issuer and the user many practical benefits such as: higher durability, compact size, high security, easy to detect real and fake... The Ministry of Transport also listed a series of shortcomings of cardboard cards.

According to reports from localities, the Ministry of Transport stated that up to now, the whole country has completed converting 95% of car driving licenses to PET cards, with only about 300,000 driving licenses remaining, ensuring completion in 2016 as scheduled.

Further explaining, the Ministry of Transport stated that the drafting of Circular 58/2015 had been widely consulted with affected subjects on the Ministry's electronic information portal and the portal of the drafting agency.

However, after being "whistled" by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Transport said it is drafting a circular to replace the circular regulating training, testing and granting of road motor vehicle driving licenses. The new circular is expected to be issued in the next few days.

Ministry of Justice explains "late whistle blowing"

Discussing the issue of Circular 58/2015, which was issued a year ago, being "whistled" too late, Mr. Dong Ngoc Ba - Director of the Department of Inspection of Legal Normative Documents (Ministry of Justice) - said that after this Circular was issued for quite a while, the department just received the copy transferred by the Ministry of Transport according to regulations.

The Department conducted the assessment about three months ago. “To reach a conclusion, only to find unreasonable points and contents that are not in accordance with the law, it takes time.”

"When we found any errors, the department directly communicated with the functional units of the Ministry of Transport. The official conclusion was just made, not just after the inspection," said Mr. Ba.

Regarding the question of a circular that immediately faced public opposition upon its issuance but took a long time for the Ministry of Justice to "blow the whistle", Mr. Ba explained: "The expectation of the people and society is to do it faster, we understand very well, we have also tried to do it".

"The force responsible for checking documents at the Ministry of Justice is very thin while the amount of documents issued by ministries, branches and localities is very large."

"In this case, it is also necessary to have time to discuss thoroughly, get opinions, and meet with the issuing agency."

Mr. Ba also added that if the implementation of Circular 58/2015 causes consequences, the issuing agency must have a solution.

According to Tuoitre