LTO seeks cooperation of dealers to resolve plate backlogs

Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief, Atty. Vigor Mendoza II, sought the cooperation of the Philippine Automotive Dealers Association (PADA) to address the backlogs in vehicle plates and release of registration documents during the group’s recent 5^th general assembly in Taguig City.

In his speech, Assistant Secretary Mendoza said that upon his assumption as head of LTO, he established a Technical Working Group (TWG) that will analyze and formulate solutions to “low-lying” problems he observed in the agency together with transportation stakeholders.

“So because we created a Technical Working Group that meets every week, and this is something I’d like to do also to PADA,” said Mendoza.

Mendoza explained that there are some changes that they are fast-tracking with the help of another automobile group, the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (CAMPI) and the Motorcycle Dealers Association of the Philippines (MDAP). Other major changes in policies were already forwarded to the Department of Transportation (DOTr) for approval.

Mendoza, among the many issues at hand, acknowledged that the LTO is still trying to deal with the 80,000 vehicle plate backlog. If new vehicles are to be added, Mendoza says that there’s an additional demand for 2,000 to 4,000 plates daily.

Plate production at 95% full capacity

Accordingly, Mendoza announced that LTO’s plate production facility is now at 95% full capacity and that the plate issue will be solved within the next few months.

“What does it mean? We can now produce… we are producing one million plates a month.  We have dedicated machines that cater only motor vehicles,” added Mendoza. 

“Right now as we speak, I have instructed all District Offices and Regional Directors that we should be able to cater to the current demand as far as motor vehicles are concerned,” he adds.

The LTO chief even confessed that he too has to wait for three months to get the OR/CR (Official Receipt/Certificate of Registration) of the car he bought last July.

Online process is the key

Another complaint that has reached him is the long wait of automotive dealers for the approval of their accreditation. Mendoza said that it’s one of the processes he wants to speed up by using online applications to reduce face-to-face transactions that slow down the process.

“I’d like to sit down with you [PADA] guys and discuss the problems on your end [and] how we can help you dig that and address those problems [and] how to make things faster and more efficient as far as registration of vehicles is concerned,” Mendoza stressed. 

“We at LTO, I hope you view us [that] we’re here to assure that part [registration] of the process. We are here to help your business flourish…” said Mendoza during his speech.