Renew driving licence at optical centres

Rather than visiting two different places for an eye test and driver’s licence renewal, motorists can now get their licences renewed at one-stop optical centres in a single visit.

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has awarded four top opticians in town a Trusted Agent status and one of the four – Yateem Opticians – has already started the service at all of its branches across the country, Khaleej Times reported.

The other three Trusted Agents - Barakat, Al Maghrabi and Grand - are currently holding trials on the system and would go live soon.

RTA aims to provide one-stop solutions to its customers and this service provides just that. Under the system a motorist would be able to complete all the formalities at the optical centre, right from doing the eye test and processing the licence.

“The Trusted Agent is another channel that RTA has added to its services in order to enhance the level of convenience for our motorists. Our idea is to provide one-stop solutions where a customer can get an entire job done, rather than running around to different centres,” Ahmed Hashem Bahrozyan, CEO of RTA’s Licensing Agency, was quoted as saying by Khaleej Times.

The service is currently available with all the branches of Yateem Opticians and the other three Trusted Agents would also start soon.

The process is simple. A motorist has to submit his valid passport copy along with the expired Driving Licence. An eye test would be done and a positive result would be followed by the processing of the licence. The costumer would then get a temporary paper copy immediately followed by the original licence in two to three days by courier.

 “We were basically looking at the reach of these companies. Just like the Trusted Agents for insurance we chose last year, the four we have selected now have the most number of branches across the country and have the capability to handle the costumers. We are in talks with some of the others and could increase the number soon,” said Bahrozyan, shedding light on the criteria based on which the four companies were selected.

Apart from the facility to renew a Dubai-issued driving licence in any of the trusted agent branches across the country, RTA has also launched the facility to transfer a licence issued by other emirates, provided the holder is currently working in Dubai.

“If a person’s licence issued in any other emirate expires and he is currently working in Dubai, then we are ready to issue him a new licence without a test,” informed Bahrozyan.

The facility would help solve problems for many motorists who until now had go through a cumbersome process of NOCs and other documentations.

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