Nearly 900 drivers in Puerto Rico renew licenses via new app

Approximately 893 people in Puerto Rico successfully renewed their driver’s licenses on the CESCO Digital app for mobile devices the day after the Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP, in Spanish) added the new feature to the platform, government officials said.

In a press release, Transportation Secretary Carlos Contreras and Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Services Executive Director Glorimar Ripoll-Balet said the pilot program will allow users to renew their regular and Real ID driver’s licenses either through Apple or Android-based phones.

The app is expected to process about 30,000 license renewals a month for licenses that will be good for eight years.

“An average of just over 30,000 people will be able to renew their IDs and driver’s licenses on a monthly basis, without the need to visit a Driver Services Center (CESCO, in Spanish), or to request a medical certificate, or go through a Department of Treasury collections office to buy stamps and vouchers,” Ripoll-Balet said. Citizens who are eligible to use the service will have to pay an additional $11 on top of the costs of renewals.

This is the latest feature added to the app unveiled earlier this year, through which DTOP has been able to collect outstanding fines totaling more than $33 million, Contreras and Gov. Wanda Vázquez said.

Among the requirements to be able to renew digitally are: being between 21 and 70 years old; having current documents in CESCO’s systems; and be a U.S. citizen.

Finally, Contreras said that drivers who renew their license this year will not have to go back to the CESCO until 2028. The renewal after that will have to be done in-person, “so in practical terms, from now on citizens will have to go to CESCO to renew their licenses and IDs once every 16 years.”