Some genuinely forgot to renew driving licence

PETALING JAYA: For years, driving played a big part in the daily routine of logistics executive Mohd Ismail.

All went well until he was “jolted” during a traffic mishap in 2017.

A police officer pointed out to him that his licence had expired two years earlier.

“It must have slipped my mind,” said Mohd Ismail, 42.

“Thankfully, that was the only untoward incident during the entire period I drove with an expired licence.”

In the case of office worker Rener Foo, he spent almost a month driving around without a valid licence.

“I was driving when someone asked about my birthday. It then struck me that my licence had lapsed a week earlier,” the 33-year-old said.

(The expiry date of a driving licence is usually set on the holder’s date of birth.)

Still, Foo did not get it renewed immediately. He claimed that it got dragged on because of work and other commitments.

Asked whether he was worried about being caught, he said: “I didn’t really drive far, so there was little chance of being caught at roadblocks.”

A marketing executive who wanted to be known only as Raj, 39, said working from home over the past few years made him forget to renew his licence.

“We returned to the office full-time this year, but the validity of the licence slipped my mind completely,” he said. He discovered about the expired licence only several weeks later when he had to fill up some official forms.

It appears that many Malaysians still prefer to have a physical driving licence despite the availability of the digital version.

Retiree MK Wong, 60, said he always keeps the physical licence in his wallet.

“It’s been that way since I first got my licence 40 years ago. It feels right to have the hard copy with me,” he said.

Software analyst Liyana Kamal, 29, said although the digital copy is convenient, she always keeps a photocopy of her original licence.

“There is also a screenshot of the digital copy in my phone when there is no Internet to show my digital driving licence,” she said.