You can sign up this week to car registration renewal on your phone or email address
Driving your car unregistered is one of the most expensive mistakes you can make on South Australian roads — but a new system is on its way to help.
SA News
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The annual angst over renewing car registration has been abolished by the introduction of automatic mobile phone renewal by SMS or email.
For many South Australian drivers renewing the registration means checking the “snail mail”, regular visits to State Government offices to manually renew, or time on the telephone on hold.
But they can now volunteer to be part of a scheme which will prompt them directly on their mobile phone or PC.
The digital renewal notices will remind subscribers that their registration is due to expire
in six weeks, along with a reminder one week before, and include a direct link for online renewal.
Minister for Transport Stephan Knoll said there were 1.8 million registered vehicles liked with a mySA GOV accounts, the owners of which could take advantage of the scheme.
“The Marshall Government is continuing to deliver new initiatives that improve service delivery, in this case for South Australian vehicle owners,” he said.
RAA spokesman Charles Mountain welcomed the initiative, but also backed plans to maintain the paperwork system for those who wanted it.
“Anything that can make the task easier and less time consuming is welcome, and also it will be a useful reminder to people if they have forgotten to pay,’’ he said.
Around 70,000 drivers are caught with an unregistered vehicle every year, many because of an oversight in their paperwork.
There will also be a win for the environment with many of the weekly 70,000 registration renewals mailed out every week eliminated.
The moves will also take the political burden off the State Government which has revealed plans to close ServiceSA offices at Mitcham, Modbury and Prospect.
It has since been revealed that the Prospect office was the second-most lucrative centre in the state and raked in $25.1 million in the 2018-19 financial year. Modbury earned $17.4 million for the Budget, and Mitcham made $16.5 million.
Mr Knoll said there had been a popular move away from paper-based bills in recent years.
“More and more people now prefer to receive their utilities bills or other correspondence digitally, whether that be email or via a text alert system,’’ he said.
“We are now offering a similar service to all South Australian vehicle owners to improve timely communication and provide them with a better service.
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“We’ve already seen an overwhelmingly positive response since implementing digital drivers’
licence, with just over 200,000 South Australians opting in for that service.
“In fact, on average around 10,000 South Australians continue to opt in for digital licences each month.
“With around 70,000 registration renewal application forms currently being printed and mailed out on average every week, the introduction of digital notices will also help improve the state’s environmental footprint and reduce waste.’’
Mr Knoll said from the point the system goes live on Tuesday it will be pushed with a communications strategy.
“This includes promotional material included in all new vehicle registration notices, as well as a broader digital campaign on social media and at Service SA centres among others,” he said.
If the registration expires, a digital notification will be sent on the day following expiry.
In an unpromoted trial of the system over the last month, 10,261 customers linked to 14,166 registered vehicles had already subscribed, including 6732 new account holders.
miles.kemp@news.com.au