By April 30 this year, all tricycles across the country, particularly those being used in public transportation, will already have their respective license plates, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) said as it reported significant improvement in addressing the plate backlog on motorcycles.
LTO Chief, Assistant Secretary Vigor D. Mendoza said he already directed all regional directors to ensure that all the license plates of tricycles are delivered by April 30.
Mendoza explained that the inventory they conducted revealed that they already have sufficient supply of license plates to cover all the tricycles across the country.
The only challenge, he said, is how to deliver them to the rightful owners in the soonest possible time.
And this is the reason, according to him, why he also directed all LTO regional directors to craft and submit their plan on how they intend to distribute the license plates in their general area of responsibility.
He said the LTO Regional Directors are given until Jan. 27 to submit the distribution plan, the intention is to guide them in the implementation period based on past experiences.
“We are confident that we would be able to finish the distribution of the license plates for tricycles across the country amid the significant improvement in the license plate printing process since last year,” said Asec Mendoza.
“This is part of our catch-up plan to distribute license plates. As we have committed before, we are doing everything in our power to speed up the printing and we are happy to inform the public that we were able to achieve it and right now, the challenge is to distribute them to the owners,” he added.
Mendoza, however, stressed the need for coordination with the local government units to ensure the success of the program.
“Ever since, the LGUs have played a significant role in the distribution of the license plates. Even the barangay officials are always willing to assist, all that we need is to coordinate them properly,” said Mendoza.
The distribution of the license plates for tricycles is part of the effort of the LTO to address the backlog on motorcycle plates by July this year.
The backlog of license plates for the four-wheel vehicles were already addressed as early as January last year.
Mendoza also highlighted the importance of the tricycles having their legitimate license plates, as he explained that this is also part of the solution on the problem of colorum tricycles in every town and cities—similar to its success story in Quezon City.
Tricycle Operators and Drivers Associations (TODA) expressed gratitude to the LTO last year after the backlog on the license plates was addressed and as a result, their daily earnings significantly improved as colorum tricycles were already wiped out.
“We want to replicate this good practice in Quezon City to the rest of the country. With the help of the LGU, we will not only address the backlog but also the problem on colorum tricycles,” said Mendoza.