Road Motor Transport falls under Transport Management and its headed by a Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, Assistant Commissioners, Field Officers, and Data Capturing Clerks. Road Motor Transportation (RMT) section, was established under Road Motor Transportation Act [Chapter 13:15]. The purpose of the Road Motor Transportation is to facilitate and regulate national and cross boarder traffic flow in a manner that optimizes mobility and accessibility thus contributing to the seamless integration of Southern African Department Community and CoMESA States.

Mission

Our Mission statement is to facilitate and regulate national and cross border traffic flow in a manner that optimizes mobility and accessibility thus contributing to the seamless integration of Southern African Development Community and CoMESA states.

ROLE

To administer the Road Motor Act, No 1 of 1997 (Chapter 13:15)

Overall functions of Road Motor Transportation are:

• Issuing Operators Licence, Route Authorities, Foreign Operator’s Licences, CoMESA and Cross border Permits.
• Advising operator on implications of the Road Motor Transportation Act 1997 and the Road Motor Transportation Public Service Vehicle Services Regulations 1998, as a proper planning and management of transport operations.
• Representing the Ministry at Bilateral, Regional, International and Multilateral meetings aimed at promoting co-operation in the field of Transport and in development of Regional Transport services.
• Road Motor Transportation has two offices, one in Harare and one in Bulawayo. Bulawayo issues all other permits except the Operator’s Licence, which is issued in Harare by the Commissioner.
• The following are the statistics of what we have issued this year and our revenue collection data.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR SERVICES OFFERED BY THE ROAD MOTOR TRANSPORTATION (RMT)

1. OPERATOR’S LICENCE

Requirements for considerations of an Operator’s Licence Application

• Schedule of drivers employed.
• Garage Inspection Report from VID
• Currently US$75.00 application and licence fees US$50.00 per vehicle per year.
• Bank statement
• Tax Clearance

Note: An Operator’s Licence is issued for a specific service for example, omnibus, tour vehicle, taxi operations or goods and is not transferable.

2. ROUTE AUTHORITY

Requirements for consideration of Application for Route Authority

• Copy of Operator’s Licence
• Certificate of fitness (valid for more than a month)
• Passenger and vehicle insurance
• Vehicle Registration book
• RMT 11 schedule vehicles and other relevant details such as type of vehicle, authorized load, seating capacity, certificates of fitness number and date of expiry.
• For stage carriage service of 120km or less, a fare and timetable are required
•  For stage carriage service of more than 120km, a fare and timetable are required
• Currently US$75.00 application and route authority fees.
• Recommended letter from city/town only for stage carriage within 40km radius of city/town

Note: Validity of Route Authority is dependent on the period of the passenger insurance cover.

3. BILATERAL PERMIT (FREIGHT)

• A bilateral Permit is issued for operations in countries which Zimbabwe has signed Bilateral Road Transport Agreements with and can be for conveyance of passengers or carriage of goods.
• This permit also carries with it the concept of “extra territorial jurisdiction” in that it is used for operations into the territory of the contracting party without any need for another permit or document besides toll fees or transit fees.

Requirements for consideration of Bilateral Permit (Freight)

• Operator’s Licence
• Certificate of Incorporation in the case of a company
• Vehicle Registration Book for both for horse and trailer
• Certificate of Fitness for both horse and trailer
• An application fee of USD150

Note: A truck towing a South African Registered Trailer requires a letter of authority from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

4. BILATERAL PERMIT (TAXI)

Requirements for consideration of Bilateral Permit (Taxi)

• Operator’s Licence
• Vehicle Registration Book
• Certificate of Fitness
• Passenger Insurance
• Vehicle Passenger Insurance
• An application fee of USD150

Note: In order to operate cross border a taxi must be a member of one of the cross border taxi associations. These are namely:

Liztrac                           Harare                          South Africa

Zilta                              Zimbabwe                     South Africa

Magalta                         Zimbabwe                     South Africa

Zamolta                        Zimbabwe                     South Africa

There are no individual permits for taxis; they are attached to the associations.

5. BILATERAL PERMIT (BUS)

Requirements for consideration of Bilateral Permit (Bus)

• Operator’s Licence
• Vehicle Registration Book
• Certificate of Fitness
• Passenger Insurance
• Vehicle Passenger Insurance
• Fare tables
• Timetables
• Letter of Confirmation of the legal parking space in South Africa
• An application fee of USD$150

Note: Before a new application is approved, it is first referred to the destination country and we wait for 14 days for their response before a decision is made.

6.Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (CoMESA) CARRIER LICENCE 

This is a licence issued to transporters of goods only. The licence is uniform for all Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (CoMESA) member states and it carries the concept of extraterritorial jurisdication “in that it is recognized when transiting through or destined to a CoMESA member state.

 Requirements for CoMESA Carrier Licence

• Copy of an Operator’s Licence
• Registration Book – Horse and Trailer
• Certificate of fitness – Horse and trailer
• For a company – a copy of certificate if incorporation
• Application fee is US$150.00

FOREIGN OPERATOR LICENCE

This is a licence issued to operators of those countries Zimbabwe has not signed and are not member states of COMESA. The licence can be issued for operations into Zimbabwe or transiting Zimbabwe for both goods and/ or passenger. The licence is valid for a minimum of fourteen days (in terms of payments) and a maximum of eight – fourteen days.

FEES

• US $500 for 14 days
• US $650 for 28 days
• US $800 for 42 days
• US $950 for 56 days
• USD $1 100 for 70days
• USD $1 250 for 84 days