Chip and pin driving licences, how many times have I mentioned this over the last few years ... I've been following very carefully the process amongst the European community and the step into this technology since 2005, as it averages 9 years for the technology to be trialed and the needs identified and agreed, it is no surprise that we are standing on the edge of 2014 and still no formal announcement, only a press release that we will see the end of the counterpart in 2015.
I nearly fell over laughing during the cut the red tape campaign, I would seriously like to know how many people were involved in the live online debate surrounding the paper counterpart, figures which are 'currently unavailable', because this was the greatest spin of all time, if you were asked what red tape you would like cut, I doubt that outside of the DVLA the first thing that springs to mind would be the driving licence counterpart.
The Driving Licence Committee have been huffing and puffing over a secure data card since 1999, this led to a meeting of seven EU countries and the UK in Wales, the aim was to discuss the future of technology, it's advances and the fact that the UK had a serious fraud problem surrounding driving licences, which open the pathway to identity fraud and access to securing bank accounts for money laundering among other things., in one year 2500 fraudulent applications were received by the DVLA.
The smart card licence was originally intended to cut out the DVLA input so that points and bans would be electronically registered by the court service and update would take place immediately, under trial this proved to be unreliable but leaves potential for an effective international database. The commission initially refused the complete introduction of the smart card licence, with contactless features, as they felt the UK was the only country with a problem regarding fraud, however Sweden disputed this, and now Latvia has led the way with a contactless chip licence, initially technology meant the chip had just five years as a life span, however, technology has now improved and ten years is possible, each member state would be responsible for regulations regarding the replacement of defective or faulty cards.
The DVLA is currently running a customer survey https://www.snapsurveys.com/wh/s.asp?k=138424830018 which closes on 7th December, this is a result of the May meeting regarding licensing services across the European Union. The suggestion is that all electronic services will match the smart card introduction, CPC records, dangerous goods licence, vehicle registration etc. The next meeting is June 2014, where in roads for the 2020 road safety targets will be discussed as well as mileage registration for vehicles and a smart registration. The chip needs to be a minimum of 8kb, with the potential for 16kb, the biggest concern being larger memory equals more cost.
So chip and pin, as part of the contactless technological revolution are on their way, baring in mind that the writing has been on the wall since the mid nineties, not only has it taken a long time and a lot of informal workshops and trials to come to fruition, but it seems as usual we are the last to know, as a business that needs to see driving licences as a matter of course, should we not have been in on the act?
No comments:
Post a Comment