The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) has alerted customers that key sections of its My e-Services portal—including online applications for driving licences, digital tachograph cards, professional driver qualifications and seafarer certificates—will be offline on Saturday, 19 September from 08:00 to 13:00 local time. The planned maintenance window also affects some vehicle-registration transactions as well as the electronic identification gateway used by expats to access state services remotely. Although the interruption lasts only five hours, it falls at the start of a weekend when many international assignees finalise vehicle purchases or convert foreign licences. HR and mobility teams are therefore being advised to reschedule any urgent submissions—such as proof-of-driving-experience uploads for residence-permit renewals—or to use the agency’s call-back service, which will remain operational. Traficom said normal service would resume immediately after the upgrade. The downtime is part of a broader modernisation of Finland’s transport-licensing system, which is being migrated to a new cloud environment ahead of the 2027 roll-out of the EU Digital Identity Wallet. Officials have promised faster processing once the overhaul is complete: the average turnaround for a standard licence renewal is expected to drop from four to two working days, and maritime certificates will move to digital-first issuance during 2027. For multinational companies, the short disruption underscores the importance of building in buffer time when arranging compliance-sensitive tasks such as fleet-car registrations or crew-change documentation. Mobility managers should also remind foreign employees that physical service points at larger Ajovarma centres remain open, but appointments must be booked in advance. Traficom publishes planned outages at least 48 hours ahead on its newsroom site. Users can subscribe to English-language SMS alerts—a useful step for non-Finnish speakers holding time-critical work or residence permits that hinge on valid driving privileges.
Source: Traficom
