For all drivers and conductors out there, here’s a fantastic news for you.
The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has announced that starting this month, October 2016, the new driver’s and conductor’s license will now be valid for 5 year. This is based on Administrative Order no. 2016-034.
It is expected that this new rule will allow motorists to reduce time and money spent on processing and renewing licenses because of the longer validity.
Only New and Renewal Licenses Will Be Covered By The 5-Year Expiration Date
This means that existing licenses will still keep their current expiration date but once they have been renewed, they will already follow the 5-year expiration based on the new policy. Of course, requirements for renewing licenses will remain the same. LTO has, however, announced that the license fee for both new and renewal applications will be increased.
Cost of New And Renewal Licenses
The new license fee will be Php 585.00 which means its Php 235.00 higher than the past rate. This means applicants will have to pay a total of Php 820.26 for new licenses (including application fee and computer fee). Rates for renewal, however, will be Php 652.63.
These costs, however, do not yet include penalties and medical examination expenses.
Out-Of-Stock License Cards
As for the problems regarding out-of-stock license cards, LTO has decided to deal with it by implementing a new rule in addition to the changes mentioned above. If ever replacement license cards are not available when an applicant applies, the old card may still be used as long as the owner still has the Official Receipt of renewal. This implies that expired license cards will then remain valid until a new card has been issued.
If you are interested to read the entire document of the Administrative Order, you can check out a digital copy over at the LTO website by clicking here.