Could you please explain what EReg is for the AAMVA audience?

EReg is the nonprofit association of registration authorities for motor vehicles in the European Union (EU), located in Brussels. EReg was established 10 years ago to register data on vehicles ownership, drivers, driver’s licenses, and now it also focuses on knowledge exchange, sharing best practices and helping members with implementation of EU policy and legislation.

How did you get involved in road safety?

I worked for several ministries in the Dutch government, including the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the Ministry of Agriculture for a short while. I switched to RDW, the registration authority for the Netherlands, which takes care of vehicle ownership, driver licenses as well as periodic vehicle testing. I was the information and IT manager and oversaw a lot of the digital transformation of that office. When my predecessor in this role at EReg retired, I entered the international domain. Even though I was coming from a policy and technical background, especially in terms of data exchange, I became more involved in road safety—that’s the most important thing that we do.

How are decisions made and reported from EReg to the member countries?

We have contacts who act as liaisons to all the member authorities. Our structure is quite simple: I’m the chair, I have a secretariat and I have an advisory board. The advisory board consists of several countries that help me make decisions for routine issues. And we have an annual meeting where all the members make decisions together on different topics. Basically, each country has its own concerns—for you that would be on state or provincial level— but when we come together, we try to take a more European look at things that we could do together, how we should standardize and align processes, and set requirements for exchange of data.

Are the member countries cooperative? Do they feel that they are getting what they want for their membership?

Of course, every country has their own authorities, but they are very pleased with the fact that they can talk to their peers. EReg brings peers together to exchange best practices and work at an optimal level, for instance, how do you treat your customers or how do you manage your front offices? So, it’s not always about the big policy things, it’s also about how to run your organization.

What are you most proud of in terms of your career?

I would say that it is keeping the network alive and keeping people happy to keep coming. People are very happy about the steps that we made in professionalizing it and becoming a partner for policymakers.

The work I’m doing right now is exactly at the crossroads of society and technology, solving the problems that technology causes and solving societal problems with technology. And it’s important to remember that the second part of policymaking is policy execution. Because you can develop the best policies in the world, but they have to be executed as well. To be honest, that’s what makes my work really interesting.

Hear more from Servi Beckers in AAMVAcast Episode 124 tinyurl.com/mrn2aada.