While the LTO is working to address its shortage of license cards, the LTO is spot on with its promise to roll out electronic driver’s licenses as an alternative to the physical driver’s license. To have access to the electronic driver’s license, you will need to have an account at the LTMS portal of the LTO. Not everyone has an active Digital ID, but we checked out our LTMS account and we were notified that our electronic driver’s license is active.

Once you click the digital ID icon on the homepage of your LTMS account, you should be greeted by your own electronic driver’s license, where you can view both the front and back portions. Aside from that, your digital ID has a unique QR code that you can scan to give you a copy of your digital ID.

While the experience of accessing both versions of the electronic driver’s license, there are a few caveats: for one, you cannot present a screenshot or a photo of your electronic driver’s license when you get apprehended for a traffic violation. Instead, you will need to present your electronic driver’s license through your LTMS portal account. This can be problematic, as you are not guaranteed to have a consistently good internet signal to access your LTMS account on the road, and LTO did not address the possibility of the portal being down at unexpected times.

LTO also adds that apprehended motorists will also be issued a temporary operator’s permit or an electronic TOP that’s valid for 72 hours–it’s also not clear how this will be issued on the road given our concerns with presenting your electronic driver’s license to a traffic enforcer.