The Transport Commissioner is giving his commitment to look into claims that people were charged late fees, due to delays caused by alleged system failures at Licensing over the past few days. However the Commissioner is reminding the public that they can renew their documents up to thirty days before the expiration date. Rynessa Cutting reports.
00:00Transport Commissioner Clive Clark tells TV6 News staff were instructed not to charge late fees where issues at the licensing office caused delays.
00:11You may very well come on the last day and therefore for some reason we may have a situation where electricity might go for some reason.
00:21You might have no internet, you might have a sewer problem, you may have a technical problem or a computer problem.
00:27We are mindful of that and therefore the system is designed in such a way and the staff have been informed in such a way that that late fee, once you present yourself at licensing department and you have that proof of your appointment and so forth to do so, that late fee will be waived.
00:53As such, Clark says, claims to the contrary will be investigated.
00:58The Transport Commissioner is also disputing claims that there was any system crash.
01:04And I do note that the system went down based on a network issue for six minutes, for six minutes alone.
01:12And we have, and the IT department, as far as I know, I don't supervise the IT department, they do have their logs and checks as to when you get any kind of technical use.
01:22So the system went down today for six minutes, nothing more than that, that did not have any major impact based on that.
01:29So crash, crashes are extremely large term to use, but it did have a minor interference for a period of six minutes and I confirmed that before.
01:40So that didn't create any sort of impact to require a shutdown.
01:46Nevertheless, the Transport Commissioner is calling for a change in the last minute culture.
01:50The law itself, under regulations, 20 of the motor vehicle and road traffic has given this person the opportunity to renew their permit 30 days before.
02:03So if you have 30 days before and you come to licensing and you are one day late and two days late, it's not the fault of the Commissioner.
02:10The Commissioner is simply following the requirement of the law to apply the necessary fees.
02:16While the Commissioner was unable to give figures at the time, he confirms a major increase in the numbers of people visiting the offices.
02:26I have not run the statistics.
02:27What I can tell you, however, at the licensing office, at this point in time, we have seen an influx of persons coming into licensing.
02:36One is because, one, we are seeing that in two and three major areas for vehicle inspection, as well as for vehicle transfers and as well for renewal of driver's permit.
02:52The Commissioner is reminding the public that renewals can be done online.
02:56As for persons who have issues with offences for which they were ticketed, whether by traffic wardens or licensing officers,
03:03the Commissioner is directing them to the appropriate authority.
03:08One of the things that the Commissioner do not get involved in is this personal incident where a person may receive a ticket from an enforcement officer,
03:17whether that person is a police officer, a traffic warden or a licensing officer.
03:20What that person needs to know and to be reminded of what is more important is that person, he has his rights to contest that ticket.
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