By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

THE Road Traffic Department, beginning today, will roll out several measures aimed at combating the chaos and long lines created by the recent implementation of a new $8m system, beginning with extended operating hours.

Transport and Aviation Minister Glenys Hanna Martin yesterday admitted that the department did not anticipate such a dismal rollout of the system that has been plagued by “glitches and incongruities,” which she acknowledged was “unacceptable.” In hindsight, Mrs Hanna Martin said things should have been done differently.

She also said the department now has license plates in New Providence, which should also help the process.

She said because the department is an essential service, officials were doing everything possible to alleviate the problems, which are now associated with the process.

The operations of the department were relocated to the national stadium following Hurricane Matthew, which caused damage to the Clarence A Bain Building.

Apart from new operating hours of 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and on Saturdays from 10am to 3pm, the Carmichael Road office, which was previously closed down, will reopen during the first week in November, she said.

Officials also plan to place tents around the stadium to shelter customers from the sun as they wait for information to be processed and plan to erect more signs to better assist with processing.

“Today (Tuesday) this is now the third day and it’s more of the same from each day. We still have long lines and long delays,” Mrs Hanna Martin explained yesterday.

“The controller (Ross Smith) has had a number of factors that have impacted the efficiency of this introductory process and the result has been a very unsatisfactory situation where people are taking hours to license their vehicles.

“One of them is that he had to move full operations to the stadium because of the damage to the Clarence Bain building.

“The Carmichael (Road) office is closed because they are relocating so the traffic is moving from Carmichael to the stadium and being centralised to a larger extent even though West Bay is still being utilised.

“And because they are having to input initial information, which is a one time process, that included your documentation, etc, it is taking very long to process one person. As a consequence, you have the bottleneck created by the closure of the Carmichael Road office and also the issue with the information that has to be input into the computer.

“The reason they are asking for the documentation (is) the first layer is you have to prove your citizenship and you will do that either by your passport or by your driver’s license. Then secondly they’re asking that you submit your NIB smart card because that is information that will ultimately be on your driver’s licence when the new driver’s licences are rolled out. So that’s what’s causing some of the delay.”

However, to combat the issues, the Ministry of Finance sent additional data entry workers and added staff to carry out vehicle inspections.

“Today the Ministry of Finance sent additional data entry persons. All in all he (the controller) will send between eight to 10 new data entry officers which will help to create new portals for the processing of individuals. He has indicated that he will add additional people to carry out the inspections.”

Over the weekend The Tribune was told that contributing to Friday’s chaos was that no new licence plates, inspection certificates or discs were available for issue. It was explained that the old discs had to be taken off the cars, and the inspection stickers removed. However, because there were no new discs available, the old discs were reissued. On Monday this was denied by the department.

“The other issue is he does not have plates, but he is telling me now that the plates are now in New Providence and he will begin the issuance of plates, ” Mrs. Hanna Martin admitted yesterday.

“So the bottom line is there have been a number of glitches and incongruities associated with the implementation or introduction of this process.

“In hindsight, things ought to have been done differently. However as we move forward we have to ensure that we minimise inconvenience and frustration of people and that is what is happening now.”

Anger

The situation has angered many motorists, with one of them raising concerns to this newspaper that people may not have sufficient time to licence their vehicles before the month ends.

“Thanks to all the ‘tiefing’ of license fees at Road Traffic they’re now trying to start this new system which they seem to be having great difficulty in starting,” the motorist said under the condition of anonymity.

“Usually we have our birthday month, all 20 working days of October to get our cars licensed, however this October they finally started on Friday, October 21, and we’ve all read that horror story about the crowds of people lined up all day, now we’re hearing that Monday was equally as bad, plus to add more insult to injury, after going through the all day wait, people were told that the new license plates are not yet ready and one will have to return at a future date for those.

“So now, we have only seven working days to license all the October registered vehicles, they didn’t even work last weekend to try and give the public some more time.

“I always get my cars licensed by the second week of the month to avoid the crowds, I tried earlier in October and was turned away and told to return on the 21st when they were starting the licensing. I foolishly drove to the stadium on Friday morning arriving at 9.15am, when I saw the absolute chaos I didn’t even bother to stop, and I have no intention of returning this last week of the month when so many will be attempting to license their vehicles.”

The motorist continued: “I trust that Road Traffic in their infinite wisdom plan to extend the October licensing period well into November as I plan to try again early next month when perhaps they might be more organised.

“They (also) suggest going online to the website, www.roadtrafficbahamas.gov.bs, so we tried this and surprise, surprise, they say they are having problems with this site and to try again later.”