SINGAPORE - Motorists who plan to drive overseas and need their physical driving licence can request it, said the Traffic Police (TP) in response to queries from The Straits Times on plans to stop issuing such licences as a default.
The physical licence would then be mailed to the motorists, said the spokesman for TP, who added that more details will be announced when ready.
"In the absence of physical driving licences, motorists who wish to check their licence validity may do so online through SPF's e-services website. This service is already available today," the spokesman added.
Plans to stop issuing physical driving licences by default were first revealed by Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs Sun Xueling in Parliament on Monday (July 8), during the second reading of the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill.
The Bill proposes to amend the law so that motorists need not surrender their physical licences if they do not have one.
Currently, upon passing the relevant driving tests, motorists pay $50 to apply for a driving licence.
From July last year to June this year, 27,943 passed the practical driving test for the Class 3 licence, while 18,605 passed the test for the Class 3A licence.
On Monday, Ms Sun said that TP no longer rely on physical licences to ascertain a motorist's driving qualifications. Instead, this information can be accessed using his NRIC and date of birth.
However, motorists who wish to drive overseas in certain countries may need to have with them a physical driving licence and an International Driving Permit.
The permit, which motorists can apply for from the Automobile Association of Singapore (AAS) for $20, contains translations of the information on a person's driving licence into 10 languages and is recognised in more than 150 countries.
Mr Lee Wai Mun, chief executive of AAS, said it is "always good and useful to move away from the hard copy or physical card".
"A lot of membership associations, for example, have also begun issuing their cards in digital form. In the case of the driving licence, it is simply just to identify what you can or cannot do," he added.
While TP did not say if there are plans to introduce a digital driving licence in place of the physical card, several countries such as the United States and Australia have begun testing or have already implemented digital driving licences through smartphone apps.
In Louisiana, residents of the American state can keep a digital version of their driving licence in their smartphones at a cost of US$5.99 (S$8.12).
The licence can be presented to the police for checks or to verify a person's age when buying alcohol or tobacco.
In Australia's New South Wales, trials are under way in parts of Sydney, Albury and Dubbo before digital licences, which are stored in an app, are rolled out across the state next month.
