Operators of Private Motor Vehicle Inspection Centers or PMVIC believe the LTO should be open to providers connecting to their Land Transportation Management System (LTMS) to send motor vehicle data even if they have different equipments.
This is what Chito Cruz, owner of Autoreach, a certified PMVIC owner and operator, believes in order for the program to move faster into nationwide implementation. Cruz, who uses the equipment of Beissbarth from Germany, said there are a number of private motor vehicle inspection centers that acquired machines from other third party suppliers and these equipment are also good for inspecting cars and trucks for safety and reliability on the road.
Beissbarth is the official equipment supplier of the LTMS being used by the LTO to automate transactions within the agency. The system and the software of Beissbarth is compatible with the system of the LTMS as developed by LTO’s new IT provider Dermalog.
“It is easier to use Beissbarth products for the LTMS because their software is already compatible with that of the LTO LTMS. There is no more need for API’s (application programming interface) when using Beissbarth machines in motor vehicle inspection centers,” said Cruz.
The motor vehicle inspection center program was initiated by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) after a series of bus and car accidents in 2017 caused the death of hundreds of commuters and passengers. A report to DOTr Secretary Art Tugade revealed that majority of the crashes were caused by poorly maintained and non-road worthy vehicles.
However, some PMVICs sourced their testing equipment from other suppliers creating an issue on whether they should be accepted into the system or not. These “third party” equipments require API’s or interfaces for their software to connect to the LTO’s LTMS.
Gian Luigi Orzi of Beissbarth Germany said it is not an issue to have other systems connect with LTO’s structure. A simple interface program should solve the issue of PMVIC’s using other brands or products.
The PMVIC is a multi-step process that inspects a motor vehicles road worthiness. This means the system checks if the car can travel on the road safely and avoid crashes using equipment installed in it.
The inspection checks vital car assemblies like brakes, suspension, speedometer, axle play and even sound levels and engine emissions. The system requires a motor vehicle inspection technician, duly registered and accredited by the LTO. This is to make sure that only a certified technician is able to access the vital information contained within a motor vehicle registration like names and addresses.
Because the LTO is also envisioning an automated system in serving the customers that avail of their service, the agency required that the transmission of data be done digitally through computers. The LTMS have been successful in doing this for the Drivers License program and the car registration program.
For the PMVIC, the programmers required a a three step process where the motor vehicle begins inspection by entering the MVIC lane and the technician logging it in and activating the test via a biometric reader. An RFID attached to the car will be scanned by the system to log vehicle data and transmit it to the LTO database. If the car is already in the system then the lane proceeds with the inspection and transmits a pass/fail message to the LTMS.
This process is repeated in three stages until all the vital parts of the car are checked for road worthiness. After the third stage, the LTMS will send a pass/fail to the PMVIC which will then issue a proper certificate. All of these activities are done online and in real time so that the car owner does not need to go back and forth between the LTO and the PMVIC.
The difference between Beissbarth equipment and other motor vehicle inspection equipment is that Beissbarth software is compatible with the LTMS software so there is no need to use an interface and the data is secure because it does not pass through another system.
However, Cruz believes that if the other PMVIC’s have a different but functioning equipment, they should not be deprived of access to the LTMS. He believes this is the best way to move the project forward to quickly serve the public and their consumers.
