The Chief Executive Officer of the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority DVLA Rudolph Beckle has apologised to commuters who use commercial transport in the southern part of the Western Region who were stranded Wednesday morning due to a strike action by commercial drivers.
He described the incident as unfortunate and blames it on a misinformation about an
extension in the date for commercial vehicles to have seat-belts fitted on each seat.
Parliament in 2012 passed the Road Traffic Regulation LI 2180 section 119(1) which
states ?a person shall not drive a motor vehicle unless the motor vehicle is fitted with a
seat-belt?. The LI gave a do year grace period for the implementation.
Accordingly the DVLA with effect from September 2014, it will not register new vehicles
meant for public service which are without seatbelts fitted to each seat. DVLA went on
to say from March this year that it will not renew the road worthiness of commercial
vehicles in the said category also in conformity to the LI.
Phase two of the measure was to identify vehicles already in the system and fit seatbelts in them. But that is yet to be done and as a result there was an extension of the deadline from March to June. But this new information was not duly communicated. This resulted in the drivers suspending work when they got wind of the plan by the Western Region office of the DVLA to implement the LI.
Chief Executive Officer of DVLA, Rudolph Beckley, admits that there was a miscommunication and apologizes for the inconvenience caused to passengers. After
a meeting with the Western Regional executives of the GPRTU, Mr. Beckley said all
stakeholders have resolved to ensure that they work towards the June deadline to
prevent a recurrence of the strike. Western Region Chairman of GPRTU Issac Essau said
they have accepted the June deadline and are willing to ensure that it works.
