Aside from the Driver’s License plastic cards shortage (and the TRO issued against the supply’s use), the LTO is also juggling with the massive backlog of vehicle and motorcycle license plates. The agency isn’t wasting any time – if we were to quote agency Chief Vigor Mendoza II – and has just placed an order for 15M blank metal plates to begin addressing the aforementioned backlog.
LTO wants to complete stamping and distribution of license plates “in the soonest possible time”
Photo: Land Transportation Office
July this year saw the LTO take delivery of 108,400 blank license plates that are ready for stamping and subsequent distribution. At that time, the backlog was still at an estimated 1.797M (for motor vehicles alone) but that may very well be whittled down – pending the agency’s machines’ capacity to stamp – very soon with the new order that was initiated by the Department of Transportation for the Land Transportation Office.
Through DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista’s initiation, “We already ordered 15 million license plates and the delivery has already started. With this, we expect to address the backlog for both motor vehicles and motorcycles on a monthly basis,” Mendoza said.
“Humahabol na tayo kase bumibilis na po yung delivery ng plates (We are catching up because the delivery of plates sped up) to the tune of 250,000 pairs every month for the motor vehicle and 1 million every month for the motorcycle. So this is speeding up already. Even our production capacity is also increasing at 32,000 per day or around 700,000 per month,” Mendoza added during the budget hearing at the House of Representatives.
Photo: Land Transportation OfficeLTO’s Mendoza nonetheless appealed to the motoring public for their patience. Given the sheer volume, especially for motorcycle license plates, the agency will definitely need time before it can make a significant dent in the backlog. Mendoza did, however, give the assurance that all the backlogs, including the registration of new motor vehicles and motorcycles in the coming months, will all be addressed by next year.
Again, the pending plates tally 13.2M for motorcycles and about 179,000 for motor vehicles.
Photo: Land Transportation Office
As we speak, efforts to distribute the newly-stamped plates are already being exerted by the LTO. With malls being tapped as distribution centers, and with one of our own colleagues attesting to a rather pleasant (and relatively hassle-free experience) in claiming new license plates, we can say that the Land Transportation Office is heading in the right direction.
All it takes now is a lot more patience, and hopefully, not too long a time because we all know that we’ve already been waiting for far too long for our license plates already.
