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Brunei: Use online services, minister urges

Several initiatives have been implemented to reduce congestion at Land Transport Department (JPD) counters and its branches, including increasing online service usage, Pay and Collect and the Darussalam hotline 123 over the past two weeks.

Minister of Transport and Infocommunications Dato Seri Setia Awang Abdul Mutalib bin Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Setia Dato Paduka Haji Mohammad Yusof acknowledged that there are still shortcomings in ensuring the comfort of the public, including an attempt to provide Drive-Through services at JPD branches, in which the minister apologised on behalf of JPD and the Ministry of Transport and Infocommunications (MTIC) for the inconveniences.

“The ministry would also like to express gratitude to the public for their cooperation and feedback, and the views provided so far, including the online application for driver’s licence and vehicle licence renewal,” he said.

Dato Seri Setia Awang Abdul Mutalib revealed that there has been encouraging growth of an average weekly increase from 68 online applications to 351 – a five-fold increase from March 21 out of about 1,000 to 2,000 applications daily.

The minister advised the public to optimise the use of online renewal as it has been progressively encouraging, believing that there is great potential as the value-added services will be the way forward for MTIC even after COVID-19 ends.

“It’s the right time to test it on-the-ground, but we advise people to go online as much as possible, as well as to talk to their banks to make sure their cards have sufficient funds and are authorised,” he said.

He explained that this is because they have experienced between three to four cases where individuals did not have sufficient funds in their card, while other cases were not authorised as they were unaware this was needed.

The minister said the public should stick to the schedules as renewal services are now offered 24/7 via the Darussalam hotline 123 where they can apply at any time.

“What they do is they call and if it is good to go it will be processed the next day. Once you call the 123 operator to receive your details, they will forward the details to JPD, and that is the good thing,” said the minister. “123 will call you back to let you know when you can collect, which sometimes cannot be met. This is where cooperation is needed.”

The minister said the MTIC received good feedback, with some mixed reviews. Public feedback is one of the reasons why the MTIC initiated the drive-through initiative.

The minister also revealed that the collection of driver’s licences will now be centralised at the JPD Driving Circuit in Sungai Akar.

The minister shared that the MTIC is preparing the Appointment Booking System for the renewal of vehicle and driver’s licence through the QueUp application which is available through the Apple App Store for iOS users and the Google Play Store for Android users since yesterday.

The minister said the preparation of the system is for the convenience of the public to conduct business at the Mail Processing Centre, Postal Services Department and JPD.

Source: https://borneobulletin.com.bn/use-online-services-minister-urges/