More proposals submitted for modern registration plates
Prototypes of modern vehicle registration plates with security features, which will aid in combating certain crimes, have been submitted to Government, which has since announced its intention to introduce a
Forbes Christian shows a list of some of his regular clients, including the Guyana Fire Service
centralised and more secured system.
The proposal was made by a Guyanese company based in Miami, Florida, USA, called EuroSign to Government Ministers, officials of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) Traffic Department on Wednesday at the Marriott Hotel.
The recommended licence plates will be embedded with security features that stymie the use of falsely registered plates and enable easier tracking and identification.
The new centralised system would see the issuance of standard licence plates for all categories of vehicles, including diplomat vehicles, State vehicles and Joint Services vehicles.
In December last, a German company had submitted a proposal for special licence plates for vehicles to assist in tracking traffic offenders as well as vehicles used for criminal activities.
The proposal was being reviewed by Government.
Chairman of the Guyana National Road Safety Council (GNRSC) Dennis Pompey had explained that number plates of this nature will help crime fighting in a big way by making it difficult for persons to commit crimes since the number plates cannot be tampered with or changed.
Traffic Chief Dion Moore had previously pointed out that this will be a useful tool for law enforcement since it will not only assist in reducing traffic offences but criminal activities as well.
“Our current system is an open system that is uncontrolled and with the new proposal, we will see a more improved system where there are more security features on those identification marks and can be traced easily from varied areas. As soon as a vehicle passes an area, certain signals will be given and the respective devices will send out an alarm.”
He explained that with such a system, law enforcement officers will be able to track tax evaders, persons with vehicular fines, and even those who are wanted since the vehicles are registered to a particular person.
Moore had also taken into consideration that, once Government gives the green light for this new venture, the road corner vendors who sell registration plates will be out of business.
Government spokesperson Raphael Trotman had assured however that even though the system will be centralised, there will be agencies across the country which will have vacancies which can be occupied by those entrepreneurs who were already involved in the trade.
When the announcement was first made, Guyana Times spoke to several of those businessmen involved in the trade who were worried about the impacts of this new undertaking on their businesses’ sustainability.
A representative from Jai Sign and Auto Designs had noted that the company will experience significant losses if this new system comes to fruition.
“We do other things but we basically started on number plates and we eventually ventured out into signs and thing, so that is a big part of our operations… we would lose out a lot because every day is a constant thing, people come in all the time so at the end of the month, is a lot of money we make from this,” he said.
The representative was hopeful that his business will win some of the bids to continue to operate, but he noted that the smaller entities will most likely be put out of operation.
A small dealer, Forbes Christian, whose establishment is located on Croal Street in Georgetown, posited that the new system will only cause chaos.
He explained that a centralisation process will put a toll on the Government and will only make the process tedious for customers as they will have to wait longer before they get their plates completed.
Another small establishment, operated by Chris (only name given), noted that it is the smaller business owners who will feel the brunt of this decision because the larger companies can earn income from doing other things, like graphic designing or tinting.
“So what’s going to happen with all the licence plates that issued before? This won’t stop the criminals them, they will still be thieving and doing them things. I think even if they want to install a security strip in the plates, then they should let us do it because nuff of we gonna be out of work,” he said.
However, other sections of society are highly in favour of this decision, noting that it is time law and order prevailed.
