How often, by law, are you required to license your car?

By Stuart Johnson

A licence for a car, truck, or any other road-going vehicle has to be renewed every 12 months.

The license is issued by the traffic authority in your area of residence, and is valid for one year after the date of issue.

The license is valid up until the last day of the month in the following year. The disc issued will show the expiry date for the license. For instance, if you first licensed your car in mid-August 2017, the expiry date on the disc will read “August 31, 2018”.

There is a 21-day period of grace for license renewal. After that date, penalties are payable for each month that the license fee is late.

License renewals can be made at your local vehicle registering authority, or at a Post Office, providing that you have a renewal form

This form is normally posted to your address in good time each year by the registering authority. If, for some reason the form doesn’t reach you, it is possible to go directly to the registering authority and renew the license there. So it is a good idea to mark a date in your diary when the renewal is due.

To get your new disc from the licensing authority, you will need your original registration certificate for your car, your ID Document, a certified copy of your ID document, and proof of residence, this taking the form of a utility bill sent to your address.

License fees are calculated by the weight of the motor vehicle. They also vary slightly from province to province.

For 2018, annual license fees for any type of vehicle have been increased, effective from February 1, 2018. This  increase is on the transaction fee levied by the Road Traffic Management Corporation for each license fee processed in any of the provinces. The fee for this transaction, added to the cost of the license. It now represents R72 of the annual license fee, an increase of R30.

License fees vary according to the weight of the vehicle, and from province to province.

Licence fees are calculated on the weight of the vehicle. Road cars, these days, generally weigh between 800 kg for the lightest hatchbacks to 2 500 kg for a luxury SUV.

In Gauteng, the total annual license fee for a car weighing 1 000 kg is R456. In the Western Cape that fee is R465, and in KZN that same 1 000 kg car will cost you R552 to license for one year.

A heavy, expensive SUV weighing in at 2 500 kg, will cost you R1 296 in Gauteng, R1 278  in the Western Cape, and  R1 464 in KZN. Check your local authority for the fee that applies to your area of residence.

The license disc is issued on a form and needs to be cut out from the form and displayed on the windscreen, on the passenger side of the vehicle. This is to enable easy reading by a traffic officer when your car is stopped for a check.