Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Dr. H. Kwame Afaglo
© 2010
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Currently there is minimal private involvement in the vehicle registration and licensing practice in Ghana. The Department for Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA) which operates under the Ministry of Transport, and for that matter central government wing, is the sole body responsible for registering all vehicles that come into Ghana or ply the streets of Ghana, among other roles.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana As the sole establishment that is yet to be digitalised, it is obvious that in the face of increasing vehicular use in the country it would face problems from two fronts being customers end and internally;
Customers (vehicle keepers)
Manual entry of vehicle data – Unlike a simplistic and first-time entry of vehicle data into the department’s database, the department is flooded with a lot of ‘paper’ and ‘pen’ documents.
Difficulty in accessing vehicle information.
Because there are about only two DVLAs on regional bases, there is over concentration of vehicle keepers
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana at the main DVLA in Accra. This causes a lot of cuing and encourages ‘backhand’ (corruptible) activities in the search of vehicle(s) information by owners, keepers or third party
Time consuming – Due to the manual entry and loads of paper work to go through, it poses as a time wasting activity when the vehicle keeper (consumer) needs to register or renew his or her vehicle documents or drivers licence.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Internally (DVLA)
Work load – Due to the ‘paper and pen’ form of entering vehicle data vis-à-vis the increasing number of their consumers, it has significantly increased the work load of the already understaffed workers of DVLA.
Documents storage - Piles of historical hand written vehicle documents are still waiting to be stored digitally, prior to DVLA going computerised in terms of vehicular data. The risk involved in the current storage system of paper documents is high and may leave the whole country highly exposed should disaster strike the DVLA office.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Space under-utilisation
All DVLA centres are under-utilising space and losing on productivity and profitability, resulting from non-participation of private enterprises, non-computerisation of records and not operating in the digital world (internet).
Profitability – Inasmuch as DVLA is a government department and not meant for profit making, this has inhibited the venture from optimising its core purposes.
Rebranding
DVLA needs the mandate to rebrand itself including its taxonomy. Instead of Department for Vehicle and Licensing Agency, it could be named Vehicle and
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Licence (VL). Under VL, the role is for the establishment to operate as an autonomous one with defined core values similar to DVLA, auxiliary roles to be fashioned around private enterprises and most importantly operating as a profit making institution.
The rebranded VL is to be operated as an autonomous institution with making profit as the target without losing good account of vehicle management in the country. This is become essential in the light of increasing vehicle numbers and planning against the next twenty years.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana The core functions of DVLA are:
Registration of vehicles that enter Ghana.
Regulate vehicle type policies.
Determining and approve vehicle’s road worthiness or otherwise.
Regulate drivers licence policies.
Issue drivers licence, etc.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Schematically DVLA’s operations in relations to its customers are shown below.
Driver licence section Vehicle licence section
Note: Customers must move physically and DVLAs documentations are ‘pen and paper’ based.
DVLA operated (implying government operational mode) Private enterprise operated. Figure1 Vehicle Registration & Licensing Road worthiness checks Finance - Bank Road worthy issuance of sticker Drivers licence documentations Biometric testing Issuance of drivers licence
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Much as the scheme of DVLA’s operations is been successful all these years, the scheme is open to improvements with obvious lapses as mentioned below.
Open loops – Inferring from figure 1, there are information gaps that are operationally unhealthy as:
Drivers licence documentation and Issuance of drivers licence.
Vehicle registration & licensing and Issuance of road worthy sticker,
Diver licence section and Vehicle licence section as well.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Manual documentation – The ‘pen and paper’ documentation of data (vehicles and licences) slows down work besides the cumbersomeness of tracking records and proneness to higher risk of retrieval.
Physical movement of customers – Customers presence at all the stages is counter productive for national wealth creation. Since the (DVLA’s) customer’s employer(s) would loss those human hours of work as absence from work, whiles spending avoidable hours at DVLA premises.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Rebranding vehicle registration administration as vehicle registration management (VL) would reverse all the adverse ramifications associated with the former brand (DVLA), then move into profit making operations with focus on rendering high quality services to its customers.
The scheme on the next slide is the recommended VL operations.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Vehicle & Licence (VL) operations – The new brand (figure 2) VL Vehicle registration and licensing section Data centre Driver licence section Customer Driver licence application Learner driver testing (VL & Police) Biometric and simulation testing sites Payment gateway Satellite tracking of vehicle movements Sales - vehicle device, etc Payment gateway Finance – Bank and Issuance of road worthy stickers Vehicle registration at port of entry Garage s- Road worthiness checking sites and issuance of certificate Insurance houses
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Keys
Virtual link (internet / telephone)
Physical link (movement)
Private enterprise operated
VL and Police managed
VL (for profit oriented gov. firm with quality service delivery)
Customers
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana The proposed VL management approach as indicated on previous page is a cyclical structure with customers/ consumers seating in the centre of all operations of VL. Implying, VL’s operation should be consumer lead, delivery of quality services to the customer (consumers get real value for their money) and in return VL works with a profit making orientation.
With VL contracting most of its operations to private enterprise, it must ensure it links all data in real time, monitor and evaluate all partners in the new VL management scheme.
Private enterprise pluralism must be fostered such that no one firm has a monopoly in its partnering with VL.
All contracts must go though the tender system and defined process of law.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Vehicle and port of entry - All vehicles entering the country must be registered at port of entry as a pre-requisite and upon satisfactory checks, be licensed before it enters the system. Hence, all ports that allow vehicles into the country must have at least ten (10) different private enterprises to cater for registration, checks and licensing. This process must not exceed one (1) hour.
Insurance – Upon satisfactory completion of the registration and licensing process, vehicles must be insured before leaving the ports. So, insurance houses must also bid for the contract from VL. As expected insurance contracts be awarded to several firms to enable competition.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Payment gateway – This is another source of generating income for VL, since there is no payment gateway system in Ghana. Emphasis must be drawn on online payment system such that it would acknowledge cards produced by the financial institutions in Africa including internationally recognised ones. This would hasten the time customers spend when dealing with VL.
Database – Besides VL having a fully computerised database system of all vehicles, it must integrate a countrywide Geographical Positioning Systems (GPS) tracking device for and on all vehicles. Thus, would enable VL to keep accurate account of vehicles registration validity, road worthy licence renewal, insurance, breakdown assistance, lost or theft purposes.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Since, individuals, firms, Police, insurance establishments among others would be accessing vehicle tracking data, it could serve as another source of income for VL.
Driver licence testing – With significant portion of tasks that was heretheto carried out by DVLA in its premises contracted to private establishments, VL would have enough space to team up with the motor police in testing applicants for driver’s licence. Both the computer based test and practical driving test must be at a fee to be bored by applicant. In other to ease pressure on testing officers, VL needs to train driving school instructors and have them certified at a fee bore by applicants.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Periodically, driving school instructors must be given refresher courses by VL and motor police, prior to the renewal of their certificates accordingly.
Learner driver’s licence should be applied for strictly online, backed by the payment gateway and delivery by the postal systems.
Centres for biometric testing prior to driver licence testing should be run by private enterprises and information linked to the central VL database.
VL must eschew monopolistic orientation when awarding contracts to its private enterprise partners, and ensure competition in all sectors involving their partners. Also there must be countrywide representation of their partners based on proximity from existing and prospective clients.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Should VL effectively involve private enterprises as partners in the delivery of their task backed by a holistic database interface, it would seize to be dependent on central government funding and at the same time be customer focused.
On the other hand, should DVLA continue on its existing administrative path, it would only continue to have a stranglehold its consumers, experience a fast pace declining public image especially because its clients have no choice, serve as a disincentive to staff and eventually a meltdown of the whole vehicle administration system.
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Reference
DVLA rolls out new registration rates (2010) Available from http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201002/41484.asp Accessed 9 March 2010
GNA (2008) DVLA registration goes online Available from http://news.myjoyonline.com/travel/200804/15705.asp Accessed 9 March 2010
International Road Safety Conference Accra Ghana (2009) Available from http://www.nrsc.gov.gh/contact_us/conference.html Accessed 9 March 2010
Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana : Private Involvement in Vehicle Registration Administration (DVLA) of Ghana Thank you