More than quarter of the road licences which had to be renewed in November and which did not need a VRT certificate were renewed online, through the online renewal facility offered by the Malta Transport Authority.

As a result of this online renewal service, the usual long queues and hours waiting to renew a road licence has been reduced drastically.

The number of licences renewed online is expected to increase, once the Vehicle Roadworthiness Test is included in the system in the coming weeks.

The online renewal facility was introduced in September, but only owners of cars which did not need a VRT certificate could make use of this service. The road licence renewal of those cars which needed a VRT certificate, had to be done manually.

But in the coming weeks, the ADT is expected to bring the VRT station online too, thus opening the service to all car owners who need to renew their road licence.

A spokesman for the Roads and Urban Development Ministry said the ministry was “very satisfied” with the response there was so far from motorists who needed to renew their road licence, but who did not need to produce the VRT certificate to do so. “This response is expected to increase, once the service is made available to all cars which need a road licence renewal,” the spokesman said.

The spokesman said that the ADT took corrective measures to improve its service to its customers and reduce the waiting time to renew licences and other services it provides. Such measures included setting up a customer care desk, re-training of the authority’s staff and better facilities to process licence renewals from insurance companies.

He said the eVERA system, as it is known, was introduced in September, but the VRT stations were not online yet. In October, 25 per cent of those who needed to renew their road licence without a VRT certificate renewed their licence online. This figure increased to 27 per cent in November.