Doha: The Ministry of Interior, represented by the General Directorate of Traffic, launched yesterday a unified Driving Training System (DTS) and Monitoring Centre, first of its kind in the Middle East , at the Traffic headquarters in Madina Khalifa.
The new system will bring more accuracy and transparency in driving test results and ensure proper learning classes. Traffic police officers will not sit besides learners during the test, so the learners will not hesitate.
Under new system, which will be fully implemented by the end of this year, all cars for learning and test in nine driving schools operating in the country will be equipped with smart devices and connected to the Monitoring Centre of traffic department to monitor and record learning classes and tests.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Director-General of Traffic, Major Mohammed Saad Al Kharji said that this new system would contribute to bringing out well-trained drivers, thanks to an electronic system far from human intervention, which ensures impartiality and transparency of tests and results.
“The decline in the number of road accidents and fatalities during the recent period was not a coincidence, but was the result of such efforts from all partners of the traffic process”, Al-Kharji pointed out.
The Director-General of Traffic praised the DTS, saying that it facilitates different stages of the training process, from registration at the driving school to obtaining a driver’s license, adopting 18 languages to deal with learners of different linguistic affiliations.
He pointed out that the trainee can express his observations about the trainer and the training process through the DTS app the installed on the learners mobile.
He also pointed to the transparency of tests, due to the non-intervention of the human element, and the results won’t be affected by fluctuations in the personal mood of the examine. As well, the learner can know his results immediately and will be able to identify the errors by watching the test screens in the dashboard of DTS.
Director-General of Traffic, Major Mohammed Saad Al Kharji, stressed that the DTS and its monitoring system is the first of its kind in the regional level. It facilitates monitoring of all driving schools in the country, both in the training stages and in the theoretical and practical testing phase.
“The most of the driving school cars have been equipped to keep pace with the DTS, and by the end of the year, all driving schools will witness a 100% upgrade to the system without a need of human intervention”, Al Kharji noted.
Brig. Engineer Mohammed Abdullah Al Malki praised the DTS, saying that the monitoring of drivers training electronically away from traditional methods is an unparalleled development. “The transparent training and evaluation system leads to fair results, which means in the end to get a good driver”, he added.
The assistant director of Traffic Awareness Department at the General Directorate of Traffic, Lt. Col. Jaber Mohammed Odeiba, said that the DTS and monitoring system would reduce the human errors in the evaluation of tests.
Lt. Col. Jaber noted that the General Directorate of Traffic also launched an automated 24 hours call centre service on 2344444 whereas the caller will be able to choose the preferred language and required service to inquire about, whether it is a violation or a driver’s license, number plates or service for people with disabilities, etc.
The head of the drivers licensing section Lt. Col. Salem Fahd Al-Marri said the General Directorate of Traffic supervises the training process of around 25,000 trainees per month in all nine driving schools in the country. It also ensures the validity of more than 1200 cars used in the training process and monitors around 1000 trainers.
The newly launched DTS will ensure the trainees are given 45 minutes of classes and benefit from its full share.
The DTS is provided with a full database for each car used in the training so the Traffic Directorate can monitor its license permit, insurance and validity to use in training. The system is also equipped with all details of trainers and it will be able to monitor the rate of failure of any specific trainer, which means he may need more qualification and training as a driving instructor.
