Driving licenses

Identification and accountability for better road safety

The driver's license is a document with multiple uses. 

On the road, it gives its holder the right to drive certain vehicles. 

It also often serves as an identity document, particularly in countries that do not have a national identity card program. This is just one more reason why it has to be highly secure.

States have more recently developed the international ISO/IEC 18013 standard, which came into force in 2009 and outlines the framework for migration towards a secure, credit card-format document.

​The standard stipulates the use of visual security elements comparable to those used on identity cards and passports. It also lays down a standardized structure for the initial data set (IS0 1813-1).

The material adopted by Europe is polycarbonate, a durable medium, which is hard to counterfeit.  

This solution is also more and more selected in North America and around the world.​​

What makes polycarbonate so exceptional?

What sets it apart from other materials is also its non-delaminable property.

When laminated under heat and pressure without adhesives and not mixed with other plastics, the intertwined layers of polycarbonate make it virtually impossible to swap document information or photos without destroying the document. 

It's the same material used to make bulletproof glass, and you can hear the difference: polycarbonate driver's licenses are so rigid they sound like a compact disc when dropped.

Maryland's new driver's license​  or Quebec's DL​ are good examples of these high-tech ID cards.

A wide range of cards, solutions, and services​

Thales offers a wide range of cards, from secure chipless cards to high-security cards with contact and contactless interfaces, as well as comprehensive solutions for driver management and registration, the issuance, and checking of documents, in addition to managed services for the issuing of licenses on behalf of Governments, as in Norway.

With its expertise in polycarbonate and innovative security features, Thales is proud to contribute to the new Greek, Norwegian, Swedish and UK driver'​s license initiatives.

Several countries have already opted for the credit card format and smart card for their driving license programs by selecting Thales as their partner.
India, Australia, El Salvador, the Netherlands, and Mexico are just some of Thales' customers in this area.

Enhanced Drivers Licenses

Enhanced Drivers Licenses or EDLs are driving licenses and identity cards with an embedded RFID chip issued by some US states and Canadian provinces to facilitate and speed up entering the United States by land and sea from neighboring countries. 

They provide proof of identity and citizenship and are issued after a secure registration process. 

Border inspection booths equipped with contactless terminals can read the unique identifying number of an EDL over a distance of up to 10 meters. 

Officers can efficiently perform a background verification of the cardholder approaching the checkpoint even before being shown the physical card for a visual inspection.  

Marquis ID Systems (MIDS), a Thales company based in Fort Wayne (Indiana), has developed solutions for enhanced driver licenses from secure enrollment to issuance and document verification for Departments of Motor Vehicles. 

Digital Driver's License

Today, many government agencies in charge of vehicle registration driver licensing investigate a smartphone version of their driver's license.

These digital driver's licenses or mobile driver's licenses could bring more convenience to citizens and bring new opportunities for transactions that require some form of identification.

Standards are far from being defined. 

However, digital driver's licenses can expand rapidly as a companion form of ID to physical drivers' licenses.

​​Thales Mobile DL solutions bring technology and implementation models that take into account user-friendliness, the local driver's license schemes and practices (drivers, Police, service providers…), and offer the highest security level in both credential storage, data transmission, and verification.

In North America, Marquis ID Systems (MIDS), a Thales Company, has developed solutions from secure enrollment to issuance and document verification for Departments of Motor Vehicles and is presently working with eleven states. 

The solution for a Mobile driver's license is a highly secure way to deliver, store, and manage a driver's license's lifecycle on a smartphone.   

Want to know more about the digital driver's license? Visit our web dossier​ .

Digital Tachograph​​​​

The digital tachograph in Europe is a technical achievement for enhanced road safety in Europe. Learn more about the project and its benefits​.

Thales Tachograph is a complete product offering, designed to meet all the requirements set by EU tachograph regulations. Learn more about our solution​​.

For more than ten years, Thales has contributed to numerous tachograph card projects that now extend to 34 different countries. 

This long and broad experience ensures the smooth running of new tachograph projects and the efficient achievement of mandatory certifications and type approvals.

Electronic Vehicle Registration Cards (eVRC)

There is a growing interest in introducing a highly secure electronic registration document to fight fraud, gain savings by dematerializing processes, and bring convenience to government administration, private businesses, and citizens with effective e-Services.

Thales Electronic Vehicle Registration cards offer a flexible approach for electronic vehicle registration cards and related use cases from modules to turn-key projects.

We can offer:

• Versatile IAS electronic application for secure vehicle data storage and eServices with secure polycarbonate or PET/PVC cards
• Flexible end-to-end solution: enrolment, issuance, verification, eGovernment infrastructure
• Managed issuance services to leverage the power of outsourcing.

With Thales Electronic Vehicle Registration cards, you can:

• provide ultimate document security and effectively prevent attempts to modify or change data
• allow secure identification of the owner
• facilitate efficient roadside checks
• track the entire life cycle of new and second-hand cars
• enable smarter management for taxes, insurances, and fines

Smart driving licenses and vehicle registration examples

El Salvador introduced eVehicle registration card in 1998 to streamline and centralize administrative processes and tighten up security to fight vehicle theft, illegal importation, identity theft, and reduce fraud related to counterfeit documents. 

The smart card solution helped to fully automate procedures and processes for government management of vehicle registration, licensing and tax, and fine payments. 

It also enhanced safety for the general public. Furthermore, it improved the Tax Administration’s ability to collect fees compared to the previous procedures. 

In the first year of the new service, tax evasion was reduced with a 35% annual increase in taxes paid than the previous year. The higher rate of collection in the vehicle circulation tax was due to greater control and ease of payment procedures.

India implemented an infrastructure that now offers immediate access to information about drivers and their vehicles to Police and other authorities. The latest development has been a common layout for eVRC with standard security features for all states (cross-border verification in particular).

In addition to road safety prevention measures that will leverage applications such as "Point-record driving license" and vehicle control history, the Moroccan Ministry of Transport aims to use electronic driver's license and vehicle registration cards to provide citizens with a set of services that touch multiple facets of their daily lives.

​Morocco’s eDL and eVRC could gather future public transportation applications, motorways, tolls, insurance, tax payments, etc.

As of 2013, British motorists get the new polycarbonate-based UK driving licence supplied by Thales.​

In Australia, a digital driving license solution will be piloted in the Fraser Coast in early 2020, before extending to other regional locations and being available to over 3.7 million drivers in Queensland.

Related  web dossiers