Starting today, motorists needing to renew their driver's licenses can do so at nearly all the 7-Eleven stores nationwide, the Directorate General of Highways (DGH) said yesterday.
DGH Director General James Chen (陳晉源) said for now the service is only available through the 7-Eleven store chain.
Other convenience store chains, including Hi-Life, Family Mart and OK Mart , may offer the same serviceif they install similar processing and imaging machines.
This measure does not apply to motorists holding professional driver's licenses or international driver's licenses, who still need to apply for license renewal at the local vehicle registration departments, he said.
This one-stop service will help shorten the processing time and motorists will be able to get their new driver's license within seven days, he said.
To renew drivers' licenses at the convenience stores, motorists need to first attach a photocopy of their identification cards, their old driver's licenses and a recent photograph on the application sheet.
The license renewal fee is NT$200 plus NT$25 for postage on a return envelope, NT$15 for processing fees and NT$15 for scanning fees.
The license renewal fee is NT$400 if the motorist needs to renew licenses for cars and scooters as well.
After payment, the application is scanned into the store's "ibon" machine, which is connected to all the vehicle registration departments in the nation.
Once the service is activated on the ibon machine, the application will then be sent to the department's database.
Chen said the nation now has 4,400 7-Eleven convenience stores equipped with ibon machines. Stores on outlying islands and at railway stations do not yet offer the service, he said.
He said that these machines will block the applications if they find that the motorist has unpaid fines or his driver's license has been canceled or revoked.
"They can use the service immediately once they pay those fines," Chen said.
Also, vehicle registration renewal can be handled at 7-Eleven stores with the ibon machines.
From August last year, motorists have been able to pay vehicle registration renewal fees at 7-Eleven and Hi-Life convenience stores.
However, after paying the fees, motorists had to send applications to the vehicle registration department via registered express mail from the post office, spending an additional NT$25 and with an additional NT$7 post office processing fee.
The vehicle registration department could not process those applications until they had received the application packets.
However, only 700 people handled their renewals at 7-Eleven stores since August.
Now this service can also be handled at ibon-equipped 7-Eleven stores for NT$255. The process is faster because there is no need to mail the applications.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not