Buoyed by the success of its digital fishing, liquor and gambling permits, the New South Wales government is planning to roll out digital drivers licences in 2019, a year later than the government had actually planned.
Following the announcement in the run up to the state election in 2015, the Mike Baird government launched the digital licences for recreational fishing, responsible service of alcohol and responsible conduct of gambling earlier this year.
Now the state government has announced to extend the digital technology to the drivers licensing as well.
Once rolled out, drivers will be able to replace their plastic licences with a digital version that can be stored on their smartphone.
Services Minister Dominic Perrottet said the new password protected digital licenses will have the security features of online banking apps.
“If you carry a smartphone in your pocket and you are looking forward to a wallet-free future, digital licenses make so much sense,” said Minister Perrottet told 7 News.
In a step towards digitising the drivers licences, the state government earlier this year began work to integrate its systems with the GPs software for receiving electronic health certificates of drivers who need to undergo health checks.
When conceived, one of the aims behind the push was to save on the cost to print the plastic licences, which runs into millions of dollars.
Victoria could be the next to emulate the move to lighten the wallets clogged with multiple cards and licences. Earlier this year Vic Roads had told the Herald Sun that the agency will assess the opportunities to introduce the technology.
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