Austroads has announced its new Digital Trust Service as it plans to harmonise licence standards and verifications both domestically and internationally.
This service has been in development for much of the year. On 21 June, Australian states and territories, along with the Commonwealth, agreed that verifiable credentials requiring cross-border verification would adopt common International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) models 18013 and 23220, with the first application of these new standards being for a mobile drivers licence.
Austroads has been collaborating with various jurisdictions to ensure that states and territories are ISO-ready, aiming to launch new mobile drivers licences in 2025 and 2026.
Dr Geoff Allan, Austroads CEO, commented on the new standard that the Digital Trust Service set for cross-jurisdictional collaboration.
“It seeks to solve complex credential challenges,” he said.
“Currently states and territories do not use a common standard. Fragmentation between states leaves Australians more open to security and road safety risks. The Digital Trust Service seeks to harmonise all digital drivers licences across Australia, ensuring that they can be verified regardless of the jurisdiction or location within Australia or New Zealand and even verified in North America and the European Union.”
This collaboration was evident at the Identity and Verifiable Credentials Summit 2024 (IVC24) in Sydney today, which hosted representatives from Europe and the USA in addition to Australian jurisdictions, and tested the technology required to run the Digital Trust Service.
Thai technology was demonstrated when representatives were able to walk through the US Department of Homeland Security’s CAT2 airport gate using their digital drivers licences, symbolically boarding ‘Flight 18013’ to demonstrate the system’s ease in verifying identities and credentials domestically and internationally.
Ian Grossman, President and CEO for the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) further remarked on the international effort of the Digital Trust Service.
“The Digital Trust Service brings together the experience and learnings of the equivalent systems in North America and Europe,” he said.
“It brings global best practices that support safety, security, inclusion, reliability, and interoperability. It has shown the power of collaboration on a global scale to deliver better outcomes domestically and internationally.”
Spearheaded by Austroads, the Digital Trust Service has received support from all government agencies across Australia.
