LTO to release new driver’s license cards by August

The Land Transportation Office is set to roll-out by early August new driver’s licence cards, which will contain design tweaks and may be less expensive for the public, pending a decision from the Department of Finance.

Among the more prominent redesign features is the inclusion of the words “Driver’s License” for professional and non-professional cards, according to LTO spokesman Jason Salvador.

Previously, the description was not included and the change was prompted by the experiences of a number of overseas Filipino workers who had difficulty in explaining the purpose of the identification card in foreign jurisdictions.

“We live in a global community and most of our kababayans abroad were having a hard time with the license card … so we chose to define it so there won’t be questions anymore,” Salvador said in an interview Thursday.

Student drivers and conductors will also be issued colored licenses, yellow in the case of conductors and orange for students, based on photographs of the new designs provided by the LTO. Professional and non-professional drivers will be issued the traditional blue card.

Other tweaks included larger picture and text font sizes, Salvador said.

He said the LTO has been seeking the approval of the Department of Finance to bring down the license fee by about P70. This is because the LTO was able to bag a better-than-expected deal in a recent auction for the supply of new cards. Salvador said the LTO would like to pass these savings on to the consumer.

Last June, the LTO said Allcard Plastics Philippines Inc. won the bid to supply the government with five million cards — a move aimed at alleviating a supply shortage of the government-issued ID.

The Department of Transportation and Communications announced at the time that Allcard Plastics bagged the project after submitting the lowest bid of P 336.868 Million.

Allcard’s bid was 25.3 percent less than the original approved budget of the contract – which was set at P450-Million – thereby generating government savings of around P 113 Million. The cost of the card was roughly around P 67.37 per piece, below the cap of P 90.09 per piece, the DOTC earlier said.

Procurement of the LTO License Cards supply project opened last May 22, wherein three bidders qualified: Allcard, current driver’s license card supplier Amalgamated Motors Philippines, Inc. (AMPI), and the joint venture of DVK Philippines Enterprises and Cardz Middle East Trading LLC.

The financial bids of AMPI and the DVK-Cardz JV were P 373.880 Million and P428.8 Million, respectively, the DOTC said.