HULU LANGAT, March 5 — The Ministry of Transport launched its pilot e-testing system for driving tests this morning as part of a drive to weed out corruption among road transport officials, a project years in the making following complaints about rampant bribing cases.
Through the e-testing system, nearly all driving evaluations will be done with sensors and cameras. Assessment data will then go directly into a database that scores them based on existing standards prepared by the Road Transport Department.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said, after launching the pilot programme at Surfine Driving Institute Sdn Bhd, that three commercial driving institutes will lead the pilot project, and he aims to expedite the system’s adoption by all driving institutes possibly by year-end.
This means there will be no more officials scoring driving tests once the system is fully in place.
“I have spoken about this before. We want to prevent any human contact with JPJ officers. There were so many allegations that JPJ officers asked for ‘pau’ money, or suggested driving licences were bought,” he said.
“Now we use computers, there are no more such things. With this system, everything is scored through computers.”
The pilot project will take six months for the ministry to assess how the transition from manual to e-testing can be done.
The other two commercial driving institutes that offer e-testing are Berjaya Bhd in Ulu Tiram, Johor, and Institut Lima Bintang Abadi in Penang.
The ministry said it has approved three service providers for the testing system, with another three still undergoing evaluation.
Under the project, theory tests can also be done through computers, which Loke said would reduce waiting time for driving licence applications.
Commercial driving licence institutes can start applying for the system beginning next month.
Loke said the test fees using the e-system will be regulated. Motorcycle applications will be charged not more than RM17, and RM27 for cars or both car and motorcycle licence.
“The initiative announced today is an effort by the Transport Ministry and JPJ to ease driving licence applications as well as delivering efficient digitalised services,” he said.
