According to the Regional Director, Mr Eric Addison Bentil, the weekend services provided an opportunity for people to renew their driving licenses and obtain new licenses and all other services except for vehicle registration.

He told GNA in an interview that the move was to allow the broad spectrum of customers whom they dealt with to be able to access their services at the weekends when they were not able to do so at the weekdays to ward off the activities of middle men popularly called “goro boys”.

 He said DVLA was poised to bring its services to the doorstep of the public with timely and efficient services to ensure that every driver and vehicle was licensed according to the regulations adding that “there are many unregistered vehicles and unlicensed drivers on the roads and we are poised to weed them out”.

The Director disclosed that between January and September 2018, about 1,478 vehicles including saloon, trucks and motor cycles had been registered in the region while an average of over GHC 24,000 each month was collected as fines for non-compliance of the laws.

Mr Bentil explained that the increase in vehicle registration had its advantages of increasing government revenue and a disadvantage of an element of risk on the roads, hence the need for all vehicles and drivers to go through the appropriate and necessary steps to ensure the safety of both themselves and other road users. 

For instance he said, the law stipulated that licenses should be renewed every two years, however most drivers were using licenses which were over eight years without renewal, while many others had no driving licenses and cautioned such defaulters to take the opportunity to do what was right before the taskforce came after them.

He advised the public to transact business at the DVLA office themselves and not use middlemen who turn out to provide them with fake licenses and registration disclosing that his outfit had seized several fake drivers’ licenses.