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.

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

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?