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Senator Trillanes wants to even further limit the speed of Public Utility Vehicles (PUV) with his Senate Bill No. 2790 or the proposed “Speed Limiters Act of 2011.”

“It is hoped that by enforcing strict compliance with the mandated speed limits in various streets, highways and thoroughfares, vehicular accidents caused by speeding is reduced and that lives will be saved,” said Trillanes.

The proposal suggests that PUV operators/owners will shoulder the cost of buying/installing speed limiter and the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) will observe the installation. The proposal also says that the Land Transportation Office (LTO) will not register PUVs without any speed limiting device.

Once passed and implemented, violators will be fined PHP 30,000 and a jail term of up to 3 years.

[Article via: Top Gear PH | Image via: 9shaun at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0, GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

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If someone offers you a car with an 8 plate number, don’t buy it, instead go to the police and report what happened immediately.

The car being sold maybe one of the vehicles stolen from the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Quezon City a few days ago. According to LTO officer-in-charge (OIC) Raquel Desiderio:

“The intruders reportedly looted the desk of Leda Jose, head of the Plates Unit in the adjoining Property Office, who said she lost about P136,000 in cash, at least two ‘8’ protocol car plates, and a still undetermined number of unused plate stickers,”

Remember that buying stolen goods is illegal.

[Article via: Inquirer | Image via: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)]

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To ensure the safety of all the bus passengers going to the provinces this Holy Week, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) have joined forces with Hino Philippines Engineers to check up on buses in the terminals:

At the Araneta Bus Terminal, a team led by LTO Director for Law Enforcement Services Edgar Cabase, Sr. are keeping an eye against worn out tires, defective lights, cracked windshields, and other internal and external vehicular defect that may lead to malfunctioning of the bus unit and may eventually lead to accidents that can claim the lives of both the bus driver and his passengers.

Wouldn’t it be nice if they do a surprise inspection rather an announced one? We hope this move will reduce the bus accidents this Holy Week.

[Article via: Tempo | Image via: Wikimedia Commons (CC by-SA 3.0)]

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Sen. Lito Lapid is just voicing out what a lot of people are asking: Despite all the strict rules and regulations by the LTO, why are there still smoke belching and dilapidated vehicles on the streets?

“There is also a need to review as to how the LTO conduct their motor vehicle inspection because countless dilapidated vehicles with varying degree of impairment ranging from broken tail lights to the use of mineral water containers as makeshift gas tanks continue to roam our streets, thus posing danger to the general public especially motorists and commuters,” he said.

He filed Senate Resolution No. 413: Private and Public (For Hire) Vehicles, to investigate if there are any current regulations that need to be toughed up or taken out to ensure that the aforementioned vehicles won’t be such a safety hazard on the streets.

We hope this pushes through.

[Article via: Journal Online | Image via: Angeles264 (CC by-SA 3.0)]

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If you still have a motorcycle impounded in LTO-Biliran, then you should get it immediately as they are thinking of disposing them all. The 20 motorcycles in Land Transportation Office (LTO), Biliran Provincial Office compound were impounded mostly because of non-renewal of registration.

The OIC Provincial Director of LTO-Biliran, Grace M. Carsido, recommended that the motorcycles be disposed to have more space in the compound. However, she was denied because the owners were untraceable and unknown. This includes other documents to prove that the rider owned the vehicle.

Although not stated, it was inferred that these motorcycles may have been stolen. If you are, then it would be best to give the LTO a visit.

[Article from PIA |Image via: Brands of the World]

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So you’re driving down the road, you see a vehicle in front of you that’s belching smoke like it’s a volcano on wheels: what do you do? Take a pic of it and send it to the LTO.

The campaign named, “Sagip Hangin”, started last 2004. It would ask commuters and drivers alike to shoot pictures of vehicles and write down the plate numbers of those who were guilty of smoke belching.

Technology was the reason. Unfortunately, the gadgets then wasn’t that up to par with what we have now. With camphones almost in the mainstream, taking pictures and sending them immediately to the authorities is easy. The Land Transportation Office would then sanction the violators.

Well, that was the plan; the LTO is still ironing the details and database in their system before implementing it. Once done, the LTO will announce the number or email to where people can send the images.

[Article via: GMA News | Image via Gian Cayetano Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)]

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One thing I learned in my years of driving and being a car owner is that dealing with the Land Transportation Office can be a pain. This is especially so during those times in the year you have to renew your driver’s license and your motor vehicle registration. It’s not too difficult to determine the schedule for registration (which is usually based on the last two digits of your plate number). However, sometimes you find the need to check for vehicle registration, especially in times of emergency.

For instance, when I got into an accident sometime last year, I used my mobile phone to check the registration details of both my car and the other vehicle involved. This helped determine if the plate matched with the vehicle, if the registration was valid, and if there was no LTO alarm (such as carnapping) on the vehicle. This technique for checking registration is also helpful, to some extent, when checking used cars before buying. Although the registered name does not appear, you can at least check if there are any LTO “alarms.”

The procedure is fairly straightforward. You just send an SMS to 2600 with the following keywords:

LTO VEHICLE ABC123

where ABC123 is the plate number. You will then get a response detailing the car’s brand, make, year, color, and date of last registration. Now this won’t necessarily tell you whether the registration is still current or expired, but based on the plate’s endings, you can at least estimate if it is valid for the current year.

You can also check license details by texting this to 2600:

LTO LICENSE XXXXXXXXXX

where XXXXXXXXX is the license number. This can be pretty useful when checking for the driver’s identity and validity of the license.

To get motor vehicle transactions and keywords, send “LTO MV” to 2600. For other permit and transactions, send “LTO DL” to 2600. Each message costs PhP 2.50.

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Latest news from the Philippine Land Transportation Office (LTO) lately is that they plan to implement RFID (radio frequency ID) tagging on all motor vehicles soon. According to LTO Chief, Assistant Secretary Arturo Lomibao, this move is “a great first step in putting order in our streets,” in that it will help fight carnapping, and will also aid in motor vehicle registration, as well as apprehension (or ticketing) of traffic violators.

Some sectors are up in arms against this development, though, because they view it as an invasion of privacy. Party list Representative Liza Maza said that “[t]his technology raises fears that it might be used to violate the right to privacy of individuals. The LTO’s microchips might, in turn, be used as “spychips” for the government’s surveillance operations on those critical of the current administration.”

Critics also cite the PhP 350 fee for an RFID tag sticker to be another burdensome cost that motorists would have to shoulder, aside from the regular motor vehicle registration fees.

However, Yugatech cites some potential advantages of this scheme, which includes ease of paying fines for traffic violations, faster registration renewal, and as a crime deterrent. Some other possible applications were raised, too, such as integration of e-Pass and even parking passes, which could be a great convenience to those who line up every day at the tollways.

RFID is a short-range wireless communications technology that lets a tagged device emit a weak signal that can be read by a scanner. The tag contains a pre-set amount of information that can be useful in several applications, from inventory management, staff/student identification, asset tracking, mobile payments and the like. An RFID chip usually has a lifespan of several years, and is often inexpensive to produce and acquire (particualrly if en masse).

RFID tags are commonplace in bookstores and libraries, for tracking inventory and preventing theft. These are also used in the logistics industry, for tracking shipments and deliveries.

RFID could be the solution to the Philippines’ traffic and carnapping woes, especially in the Metro areas. Yes, it might be used as a spying device, but if you don’t really have anything to hide, then you shouldn’t be afraid, right? (I wonder if they will also apprehend you for going out during color-coding days.)

But perhaps political harassment might be a different scenario altogether. And then there are those that say it’s tantamount to being the “sign” of the “beast,” in biblical terms (recall that Cain, in Genesis, was “tagged” in the forehead with a symbol so that everywhere he will be recognized; this sybmolism also appears in Revelations).

Also, if RFID were to be a deterrent from carnapping, what’s to stop the often ingenious carnappers from just removing the tag as they speed away with your car?

Now the question here is how welcome this move will be with the Filipino motoring public. It’s a question of acceptance. In my opinion, our traffic problems go deeper than any technology, innovation or even traffic scheme. It’s an issue rooted in discipline and driving attitude. If everyone were an educated and courteous driver, then all our traffic problems would disappear or at least be easier to manage.

image source: flickr/midnightcomm

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A friend of mine got apprehended for driving a car with expired registration. And when he finally got his license from the LTO main office, guess how much he was charged? PhP 4,000, and that’s just for the base fee! He also had to pay a nominal amount for computer entry and such. That’s even more expensive than registering the vehicle itself (which would amount to about PhP 3,000 or so). Previously, driving an unregistered motor vehicle would only be fined PhP 900+. That’s a 300% increase!

A copy of a recent resolution effecting increases in fines can be found on MCP. And I believe transport groups have been protesting these fine increases.

What do you think? Will this increase discourage drivers from the usual unlawful activities on the road like reckless driving, drunk driving, colorom operations and the like? Or is it unfair to increase the fees just like that?

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