The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE Road Traffic Department has “no intention” of correcting any existing issues with its printers in Abaco and Grand Bahama, Controller Ross Smith said yesterday, adding that there is no need to fix equipment that the department had no plans to use moving forward.

Stressing that plans to automate the department’s services were “in the works”, Mr Smith vowed that the Road Traffic Department would be fully automated by July 2016.

“We do have issues with those two printers – issues with printers around the country have been a thing for years,” he said. “We use a lot of resources to keep these machines up and running, when these printers have issues we spend a lot to get them back up.

“Technicians at times are flown in, and then sent to the Family Islands to correct issues there. That takes a lot of resources.”

Mr Smith said the department is working to become more efficient and as a result, cut costs. In addition to the new automated system, the department will also introduce centralised printing.

As a part of the proposed centralised concept, people attempting to get licenses would still have to complete all the necessary written forms at their local Road Traffic office, but all printing would be done at one central location.

“Most jurisdictions have already adopted this system,” said Mr Smith. “It seems that we are the only ones still printing in a number of places.

“A more centralised concept would cut costs and make for a more efficient and effective system. New Zealand, with around four million people, doesn’t print licenses in New Zealand, they get those documents done in Australia.”

According to Mr Smith, provisions have already been made with Family Island offices to allow for printing to be done in New Providence.

Meanwhile, regarding that provision Mr Smith said the department’s office in New Providence will print licenses during the evening and dispatch those documents the next morning via couriers and Bahamasair – for Family Island cases.

Responding to questions about the department’s preparedness, Mr Smith assured the public that the agency would be able to handle the workload in a timely fashion.

“We are certainly prepared,” he said. “We are cognisant and trying to make sure that things that happened in the past don’t happen now.”

“The Road Traffic Department on a yearly average prints roughly 100,000 licenses, that is just a drop in the bucket to other places.”

The department is known for its long lines and service issues. However, Mr Smith suggested that those issues are known and are being corrected.

“We will work to mitigate our issues and offer the greatest service possible.

In May, the department announced that it was set to undertake an $8.3m modernisation process that will improve the country’s motor vehicle licensing systems.

To that end, an agreement was established between Network Security Consultant Group, a local company and Data Torque, a New Zealand based company.

Data Torque is expected to configure and implement software and hardware for the department. The company will also train staff at the Department of Road Traffic.