Deutsche Post has taken an element of its digital identification business and applied this to a car sharing scheme called DriveNow. It is expected that this could be rolled out across Europe, even to non EU states in the coming years.

The German postal operator has teamed up with car sharing scheme DriveNow to provide a digital identification solution that would enable German licensed drivers to complete the entire registration services online.

The new pilot service uses Deutsche Post’s POSTIDENT, and means that drivers will not have to search for a DriveNow registration station.

In a statement, Deutsche Post explained how the service works: “After completing their registration via the desktop version of the DriveNow website, potential customers are directed to the Deutsche Post portal. There they can make copies of their driver’s license and personal ID, and complete their application by recording a short video clip. The process takes just minutes from start to end. Deutsche Post Staff check and validate the documents which are then deleted from the server. The new DriveNow member receives their DriveNow customer card by post within days.”

While the pilot is taking place, customers can access POSTIDENT via the desktop DriveNow website. Currently, POSTIDENT can be used for all driving licences issued in Germany. However, DriveNow and Deutsche Post plan to expand the service so it can handle drivers’ licences from other EU member states and, ultimately, those from other countries in Europe as well.