Government puts brake on motor vehicle document racket
Published:Wednesday | January 11, 2017 | 3:27 PM
Stern brakes are being applied to the practice of motorists who use illegal means to secure fitness certification and other documents for their vehicles.
This as the Ministry of Transport and Mining officially launched the pilot programme for the Island Traffic Authority (ITA) Vehicle Management System (VMS) yesterday.
The first phase of the project is centred on motor vehicle fitness certification.
The new computerised ITA-VMS, which becomes operational at the Swallowfield Motor Vehicle Examination Depot today, is a software application designed to capture all motor vehicle and driver's licence information that is currently done manually at examination depots islandwide.
It will also ensure that there is no duplication of fitness records, and each motor vehicle will have to visit the examination depot for fitness testing.
Managing director of the ITA Ludlow Powell disclosed that the VMS would run parallel with the manual system and the printing system while in the test phase.
FEATURES OF THE SYSTEM
"We will soon be moving to the mobile tablet phase, where the information will be captured electronically by the inspectors and they can just print," Powell stated.
Features of the system include the issuing and printing of motor vehicle fitness; the viewing of motor vehicle information; and providing fitness reports within a specific period, per vehicle type, and per certifying officer. It allows for system reports to be done at each depot.
Also, the VMS will auto-matically verify fitness receipts from Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) and update fitness information on the TAJ system.
In the phases to follow, the VMS will also eliminate the theory aspect of the driver's licence exam by administering computerised tests and the subsequent publishing of scores in real time.
Minister of Transport and Mining Mike Henry, in his address, said: "It's a work in progress and I congratulate the ITA on bringing it to this point. It has to be integrated into a real system of implementation that makes the country's transport system work to the benefit of everyone."