NTSA set to end manual transfer of vehicle logbooks

What you need to know:

NTSA says it has moved motor vehicle registration, inspection booking, transfer of ownership, record search, driver licence record search, driving licence issuance as well as licence renewal and application to its Transport Integrated Management System (Tims).
NTSA’s online system has been on trial in the past two months with a planned rollout once found to be sufficiently stable.
The system allows for real-time transfer of vehicles without having to lodge physical paperwork with the regulator.

Manual transfer of vehicle ownership will come to an end beginning next month, making the process purely digital in the new year.

The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) said on Tuesday it had migrated motor vehicle registration, inspection booking, transfer of ownership, record search, driver licence record search, driving licence issuance as well as licence renewal and application to its Transport Integrated Management System (Tims).

“From January 1, 2017, NTSA will not accept any manual submission of transfer of ownership applications,” NTSA director-general Francis Meja said in a notice.

Moving the transfer of motor vehicles by dealers, individual owners and finance institutions to the online portal is aimed at easing the process and cutting the amount of time vehicle owners spend on the task.

NTSA’s online system has been on trial in the past two months with a planned rollout once found to be sufficiently stable.

The system allows for real-time transfer of vehicles without having to lodge physical paperwork with the regulator.

Each party (the buyer and the seller) will be required to register on the Tims portal and submit full details, including Personal Identification Number (PIN), identity card and mobile phone numbers.

“Individual car owners, companies, motor vehicle dealers and financial institutions are required to create own profiles on Tims by December 31 ,” says Mr Meja in a gazette notice.

READ: How fraudsters use fake car logbooks to access bank loans

The notice says all persons holding onto transfer forms are required to submit them to the nearest NTSA offices for processing.

The system is linked to the Kenya Revenue Authority’s online platform and will update all the vehicles registered to a person based on duty payments.

To transfer a vehicle, one is required to enter the buyer’s PIN, paving the way for the system to prompt for payment of the transfer fee.
The fee varies based on engine capacity and can be paid through the mobile money system. It will cost buyers Sh1,500 to transfer a small car.

Once the fee is paid, the system will generate a two part verification code. The first part will be sent to the seller and the second to the buyer through their mobile phones.

Each has to enter the code on their Tims profile for the transaction to be completed. The system will then show that the vehicle transfer has been completed.

“If there is a dispute after the transaction then the parties have to come to the office to have it reversed,” Fernando Wangila, NTSA’s ICT director said in an earlier interview.

Once the transfer is complete, the system creates a logbook for the new owner and the buyer asked to indicate the station from which he wishes to collect the logbook.