DVDL to expand inspections at private garages
Department of Vehicle and Drivers’ Licensing
(CNS): As part of the government civil service reform project, the planning ministry is implementing some small changes at the Department of Vehicle and Drivers’ Licensing (DVDL) which it hopes will boost the collection of motoring related fees. Among the changes officials announced this week were plans to boost the number of private garages that will be able to conduct vehicle inspections from the 13 currently approved to 20. It will also increase the operating hours this month at the Driving Examination Unit for both the written and practical tests.
In a government press release, Planning Minister Kurt Tibbetts, who has responsibility for DVDL, said the changes would improve customer experiences as well as the collection side.
“By helping the department to function smarter and more efficiently, these changes should vastly improve the experience of the DVDL customer, the agency’s staff and other stakeholders,” he said. “The public will find it easier to access our services, waiting times should drop, and – to facilitate all of this – there will be vastly strengthened lines of communication between the agency and its clients.”
The changes come following the Project Future review and strategic assessments that tested a range of options that could improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the operations. The outcome is a list of relatively minor changes but officials have high hopes that internal improvements and enhancements will improve results in the delivery of services.
Alongside the increased hours at the Driving Examination Unit, computer services will implement online booking for driving tests. The department will also send out renewal notices for past due vehicle and driver’s licences. As well as the expansion of private garages doing vehicle inspections, the new Breakers Licensing Office opened last month and the department will continue to work with the police to reduce the number of unlicensed vehicle and drivers on the roads.
See the strategic assessment in the CNS Library
Category: Government Finance, Local News, Politics
I wonder how these new garage inspectors will be selected, this process is wide open for graft.
As far as I’m concerned, a used car with a Crewe road inspection pass is worth a lot more than one with a private garage stamp. This will be even more certain now.
I purchased a car in 2008 and subsequently had to have it inspected. Failed because the rear window was tinted. I went to DVDL and purchased a new log book and found the right private guy to stamp it. For the next 7 years on island I never had either of our two cars physically inspected or even looked at.
Just bring the logbook and current mileage in for a stamp. No bribe involved, just a nice fellow not doing his job.
Stop this foolishness! Cars should only be inspected at Government licensing depts and any of the inspectors found passing cars which indeed are not roadworthy or outside traffic law stipulations should be fired. Otherwise there is no way to control this favor business this whole Island is running on
You are right because the private one tell you everything is wrong with your car for no reason. I urge everyone report abuses!
One of those very long marl trucks with a separate cab, pulled off the road just after leaving Savannah and going towards GT this week, because a rear tyre had exploded and disintegrated with the rubber slapping and flailing about. As I passed, I saw that most of his tyres were down to the canvas. The same thing happened on the West bay bypass a week ago. The entire wheel assembly had gouged a groove in the tarmac before the truck managed to pull off the road, just after the roundabout.
These dangerous and irresponsible owners should simply be taken off the roads. I see these rubber-shrapnel strips alongside the road everywhere, so it must be a common thing to run tyres until they collapse. I presume the owners change the wheels for the vehicle inspection then swap them back afterwards. This should be a criminal offence. It leaves me wondering why I see these things every day, yet it appears our Police Force is blind to them, to a man. In the last week I’ve seen three vehicles without any registration plates, front or rear. One was a commercial vehicle, another was a large white van, without side-windows and blackened rear windows, just off to a burglary perhaps. It just gets worse every day. I think we all need a ‘Traffic-app’ so we all can send photos real-time to the police.
I remember one of these trucks blocking Crewe Road after it tipped over a few years ago. Three of the rear tyres were bald and another was flat. A photo of it was on the front page of Net News. Most of them are wrecks.
I understand that this overturned truck had not been licensed for five years. I wonder if if ended up in court and what the sentence was. I was told the Licensing department had to push the Police even to prosecute.
I bought a car in June, just tested in West Bay, and the test certificate showed it had passed with flying colors. Three weeks later I had severe break issues and found out that both my front rotors and brake discs were completely worn down. I had to take the car off the road until I could get them replaced at great expense. Both garages I went to for the repair estimate were horrified that the car even got through its test. So I checked up on the garage that performed the test to confirm they were authorized by DVDL. I sense danger ahead.
It’s common knowledge that there are plenty of “garages” licensed to do the tests, who you simply give $100 to, and hey presto, your car’s passed the test. This is a load of rubbish. With the lack of accountability involved, they may as well scrap the test altogether. It’s time the police and the licensing department did the job they’re paid to do.
An interesting incident but as far as I am aware the thickness of the brake rotors (discs) is not a point of inspection on the test. It is rather the braking performance that is tested, and even rotors that are at or approaching their wear limits can and do provide adequate braking performance. I’d be interested to hear from professional technicians who undertake vehicle examinations on this matter.
Private inspectors everywhere get bribed. Only way to combat it is government inspection.
I agree completely.
The number of old and unsafe cars, including the ones spewing black smoke, have increased significantly on island since the inspection process got outsourced. I know a number of people that pay $50 extra to get their tint passed through inspection for example.
I’m frankly surprised by government’s decision since I would have expected more of a clamp down as opposed to a further loosening of standards.
Rubbish! In the UK it is all done by private garages … however these are regulated by Gov Inspectors and the penalties for misconduct are severe
Yeah right.
Actually it is right. The reason why it actually works over here in the UK is because unlike Cayman they don’t just make rules, they enforce them. For the most part, private inspections in the UK work exceptionally well because of this.
Has anyone tried to bribe a Govt inspector?.
Oh, great.
Now more vehicles that should not be on the road. New hikes in the charges from these so called garages. More money being slipped to those in power at DVDL and the RCIPS to turn the other way.
Everybody knows its happening. Reports have been made to the RCIPS, especialy the traffic inspector. Nothing has happened in over 5yrs with it, and they were given a video proof.
Pay offs are better I guess. Typical carribean corruption though. Typical.
Who passes the vehicles belching black smoke or the ones with thread-bare tires; the cars with illegal tint, tin exhausts, aftermarket superchargers, and lowered coil-over suspensions? Someone’s doing it – and fairly regularly I might add!
So if the private sector is going to conduct these tests, why do we need to have the additional cost of public employees doing exactly the same job (when they are not taking peoples cars for a joyride).
So right 7:41 am. Also some pass you when they shouldn’t, i been to one once when it was first allowed and haven’t been back since.
I will wait in line at DVDL when I have to because I refuse to get caught up in the dishonest schemes of some of these garages.
So many great things happening.
Just another gross rip off racket. This is the most blatant conflict of interest that the government has ever set up yet. These garages pick your car apart with dozens of little bullshit ‘defects’ that has no bearing on its road worthiness and then give you a quote or send you on to a fellow colluding garage, in the same business, to have everything ‘fixed’.
Of course all this can be avoided and circumvented by offering a very generous ‘tip’.
This policy needs to be scrapped, not expanded, and inspections returned to the Government licensing authority where it belongs.
That’s what used to happen with the MoT test in the UK until the government introduced proper oversight and spot checks. Now if you get caught bending the rules the tester immediately gets their accreditation revoked and the centre can get shut down – somehow I can’t see that ever happening here.
Me neatha.
Yes, thanks, an excellent suggestion. I was thinking the same when they first introduced private garages doing the testing here. It is vital that the government introduces the type of oversight that was eventually put into place in the U.K. This is one instance in which certainly we can learn from the Mother Country.