Wrote down a few thoughts while getting the car registered this morning. I had two hours to waste sitting there thinking about the LTO, so here they are.
1.) No Noon Break At What Cost? – Why are the employees forced to work thru their lunch hour? They are having to eat on their desks. They are entitled to a lunch break and this can’t be healthy for them. In the long run their performance will suffer and their service as well. I remember when we had to do that in our office, not only did the place smell like food some of it gets on the documents.
2.) 3 – 4 months (or who knows how long) waiting time for stickers, plates and licenses – You should be able to leave your contact info so that you can get an automated SMS or email when your license can be picked up. In fact you should be able to login their website and check the status of your license, plate or whatever it is you’re waiting for with an ETA and explanation why it’s taking so long. Once implemented the LTO Director can get an automated email every month as to how many times each branch exceeds their ETA and their managers can then be given a target to lower this number.
3.) Registered Mail – There should also be an option to have the license mailed to your home address like the DFA does with the Passport. This will save time from having to go to the LTO and also helps verify if the home address on the license is authentic.
4.) Bar Codes or QR Codes – OR / CRs and licenses should implement bar codes or QR codes. This will immediately lessen the amount of time it takes to encode data onto their computers. Bar or QR code readers with read access to the LTO database can be given to the emissions center and the PNP so they can quickly verify data. Meralco and PLDT bills have been using bar codes for maybe a decade by now, so this is not high tech at all.
5.) They already partly do this via SMS LTO vehicle check 2600, which is great and welcome. They should also do this via web where they could print even more data, such as disclaimers and tips if the reason you’re checking is to verify if a car you want to buy is stolen or not.
6.) Incidentally there were recent news reports that the bar codes on the new license plates are unreadable which the LTO quickly said was untrue. They should now issue a demonstration video on random vehicles to prove this. People do not trust the LTO and haven’t done so for a long time now, so maybe if they did this without people asking for it would help their PR a bit. If it really works they have nothing to worry about anyway.
7.) The encoders kept saying that the ‘slow system’ as explanation as to why they took so long. Slow server times or network traffic are not new issues. There are a lot of Bank ATMs which break down especially during pay day due to the sheer number of transactions. However they are not unsolvable.
It is possible for example, to cache data specific to a location so that the branches in that area can quickly access it faster. For example, the data for all Paranaque registered vehicles and licenses can be cached specially for the LTO branches in Muntinlupa, Paranaque, Cavite and Las Pinas so that when these branches fetch data it would be faster for them compared to an LTO Baguio branch. In other words you can design a database so that it can serve data faster to the ones who need it most. Other LTO branches can still access that data but that would be the only time it will ‘cross the network’ so to speak, and possibly experience slower response times.
These are just one of the many things you can do to improve system speed assuming of course you fix the other more common problems, such as latency, bottlenecks, slow servers and so forth. What I’m saying is the excuse of ‘slow system’ shouldn’t be an issue anymore especially considering I’ve been hearing that excuse for years now. There are ways to address them and they are not uncommon.
8.) Anti – Fixer Solution #1 – Three months or less before a registration or drivers license expires the owner should be given a SMS or email reminder along with a list of LTO agencies (or even a link to a list if email) along with a ticket number. The owner may optionally reply back with a set date to make an appointment then show up with the ticket number and be quickly processed. This will ELIMINATE FIXERS who intercept walk ins with offers to process it for them. Most people who agree to the fixers do so because they are intimidated by the long lines and confused by the process, but most people who have done this before know that the process is actually easy and fixers aren’t really necessary if you just pay attention. If you have a ticket number you will feel that you are already being processed so there’s no need to use a go between.
9.) Anti – Fixer Solution #2 – New driver applications can apply on the LTO website and submit all the data they need such as picture, 2 or 3 government IDs, etc., before they make a personal appearance. The LTO will then process the data and can even use the time to do thorough research on the person while doing so. They can even google the name or check his FB profile if they want to, as they are already online anyway. Once satisfied the LTO will reply with a ticket number and optional appointment schedules to the applicant who will then show up at the agreed time to take the exam and driver’s test. This way long lines are limited, you are able to show the ticket to your employer as a reason you are getting a day off, and you ELIMINATE FIXERS, who prey on new applications the most IMO. AFAIK the DFA already does this.
10.) Data mining and good database design can help match driver with car. As an anti theft measure the LTO can encourage car owners to log in to their website and list down who else are allowed to drive their cars or ask them to do so at their office when they register it.
A family car may probably be driven by at least 1 to 5 drivers, usually related plus a driver or two. A company vehicle can be driven by at least the same number. A company that runs fleets such as taxis can submit a list of drivers. All these drivers have licenses you can tie to the car(s). So assuming a PNP checkpoint unit barcodes a car plate they should be able to see not only the latest OR / CR and registered owner, they should also be able to see who the alternative drivers are for that car. The PNP can tie it with their own database of recent car thefts and NBI info to quickly red flag the bad guys.
So maybe the LTO is already doing this maybe they aren’t, I’m not really sure. Again these were just things I thought of having nothing else better to do at the time in their sitting area, so if I’m wrong on some points I wouldn’t be surprised.
