You may not even know you have fines and black-points on your licence. Luckily, there’s now a way to keep on track.
The transport authorities in Abu Dhabi don’t issue notifications of speeding fines and/or other penalties. So, unless they check online, often drivers don’t realise they’ve racked up fines and tickets until it comes time to re-register your car. One man is helping remedy this.
Nik Ansell’s website began as a personal project. ‘The idea for the website came to me around three years ago. I was surprised to hear that so many people had been caught speeding but didn’t find out about it until they re-registered their car. One friend of mine was caught more than ten times by one speed camera, his first knowledge of which was paying thousands of dirhams when he was re-registering his car!’ He explains.
It all began as a trial for his own licence, and has developed into a 1,300-user website. ‘I originally built the website for myself over a weekend, however as soon as people found out about it, they were keen to use the site too. So I made the site a bit more user friendly and launched the service for free, as a gift to the UAE community. I built the website for myself and my own vehicles, but interest grew so quickly I decided to make the site more professional and allow others to use it.’
The service is free, accessing information that is available to the public via government portals, and staying operational through advertising. ‘Providing people keep clicking on adverts I can cover the costs of hosting and site maintenance with advertising revenue, so I will be able to keep the service free forever. As I do not charge for the service, one challenge is keeping users coming back to the site, in the hope they click adverts. Web hosting is generally charged based on how much the site is used, more users equals more use, so I must always make sure the advertising income is enough to pay for the hosting.’
However, Nik says people don’t necessarily know where to look or when to look for that matter. ‘I don’t work with the Municipalities or the Police/RTA departments directly; the site simply accesses publicly available information and presents it to registered users in a useful way.’ He says. ‘There are currently around 1,300 registered users, which is huge considering most users found out through word of mouth. I have never advertised the site and been continually surprised to see the number of users grow week on week.’
The name came from his friend’s misfortune. ‘The name of the site is based on the saying “having egg on your face” meaning to feel foolish about something, such as being caught speeding!’
But will this superb UAE service become a full-scale business? For now, apparently not. ‘Right now this is more of a hobby or personal experiment to be honest, rather than a profit making business. However my motto is never say never.’
www.eggonface.com 
Why register
• Automatic notification of any traffic fines across all seven emirates.
• Simplified portal access to traffic fines and car registration services through one username and password.
• A monthly report showing any traffic fines.
• Coming soon: Be notified of the location of your traffic fines in English and Arabic.
Did you know?
Drivers are issued with 24 points on their licence, if you lose more than 12, you are liable to have your car impounded or a Dhs3,000 fine. Here are some of the fines you could be liable to:
Offence: Exceeding speed limit by more than 60kmph
Black Points: 12
Fine (Dhs): 1,000
Offence: Exceeding speed limit by less than 60kmph
Black Points: 6
Fine (Dhs): 900
Offence: Running through a red light
Black Points: 8
Fine (Dhs): 800
Offence: Failure to fasten seat belt while driving
Black Points: 4
Fine (Dhs): 400
Offence: Throwing waste from a vehicle
Black Points: 4
Fine (Dhs): 500
