DUE to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Works and Transport (MOWT) has instituted a system whereby appointments are required to renew driving permits.
These appointments are made at no cost to you. You enter their website, find the calendar and book an appointment at a location of your choice. A few have been lucky enough to get an appointment within a reasonable timeframe.
But it is well known that lots of folks are having a hard time finding an available appointment. They are seeing all the slots already booked, even when they try different MOWT locations throughout the country.
I will soon be one of those persons looking to book an appointment.
But a social media post I read has me troubled about the experience I may face.
The post was innocent enough at first glance… Essentially it said that anyone experiencing problems booking an online appointment at MOWT to renew their driving permit could contact a certain company, that the author of the post did so and got through with an appointment.
For persons who urgently wanted to renew their driving permits but couldn’t find any available appointments to book, this must seem like a godsend! There’s a catch though… The company will get you an appointment, but it would not be free. You would have to pay them $25 for that appointment. [Note, I am not revealing any names, as this is not required for the purpose of my article.]
Assuming for the moment that the post was true, when I considered the said post, together with the known hardships being experienced by the public attempting to renew their driver’s permits, many questions surfaced in my mind.
How could non-MOWT persons or entities get appointments to renew driver’s permits, when the website showed none available? Is it that they somehow got ahead of everyone else and booked as many appointments as they could, then sold the appointments they booked to the public?
This last question alone, if it were true, then raises so many more questions… How did they know how and when to get ahead of everyone else to book multiple appointments? Is there a limit on how many appointments one person/company can book at a time or are multiple appointments allowed without limits? If there’s no such limit, why not? Can a person use an appointment booked in someone else’s name?
Having used the appointment system on the Ministry of the Attorney’s General’s website for booking appointments to register deeds at the Land Registry etc., I know that there are limits on that website with respect to how many appointments you can book at one time. I can easily understand why: to prevent possible abuse and promote efficiency. I would find it passing strange that there are no similar limitations on the MOWT’s website.
Then again, if there were appropriate limitations on the number of appointments one party can book, why would these companies bother to sell slots to members of the public? Surely then, it would not be profitable.
Yearly reports show the perception of corruption in this country is sobering. I would shudder at the thought of loopholes existing in MOWT’s appointment system to renew driver’s permits; and further that such loopholes were being exploited by a few to make money at the expense of a public already burdened by an ever increasing cost of living. I do not know and hope this is not the case, but if it is, I pray that these loopholes are plugged immediately, for the good of us all.
Disclaimer:The contents of this article are for general informative purposes only and/or contain the opinions or thoughts of the writer only. It does not provide legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship with any reader. For legal advice on your specific situation, please contact an Attorney-at-Law of your choosing directly. Liability for any loss or damage of any kind whatsoever allegedly incurred a consequence of relying on content in this article is thus hereby excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.
What’s Going On with the Appointment System at MOWT?
DUE to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Works and Transport (MOWT) has instituted a system whereby appointments are required to renew driving permits.
These appointments are made at no cost to you. You enter their website, find the calendar and book an appointment at a location of your choice. A few have been lucky enough to get an appointment within a reasonable timeframe.
But it is well known that lots of folks are having a hard time finding an available appointment. They are seeing all the slots already booked, even when they try different MOWT locations throughout the country.
I will soon be one of those persons looking to book an appointment.
But a social media post I read has me troubled about the experience I may face.
The post was innocent enough at first glance… Essentially it said that anyone experiencing problems booking an online appointment at MOWT to renew their driving permit could contact a certain company, that the author of the post did so and got through with an appointment.
For persons who urgently wanted to renew their driving permits but couldn’t find any available appointments to book, this must seem like a godsend! There’s a catch though… The company will get you an appointment, but it would not be free. You would have to pay them $25 for that appointment. [Note, I am not revealing any names, as this is not required for the purpose of my article.]
Assuming for the moment that the post was true, when I considered the said post, together with the known hardships being experienced by the public attempting to renew their driver’s permits, many questions surfaced in my mind.
How could non-MOWT persons or entities get appointments to renew driver’s permits, when the website showed none available? Is it that they somehow got ahead of everyone else and booked as many appointments as they could, then sold the appointments they booked to the public?
This last question alone, if it were true, then raises so many more questions… How did they know how and when to get ahead of everyone else to book multiple appointments? Is there a limit on how many appointments one person/company can book at a time or are multiple appointments allowed without limits? If there’s no such limit, why not? Can a person use an appointment booked in someone else’s name?
Having used the appointment system on the Ministry of the Attorney’s General’s website for booking appointments to register deeds at the Land Registry etc., I know that there are limits on that website with respect to how many appointments you can book at one time. I can easily understand why: to prevent possible abuse and promote efficiency. I would find it passing strange that there are no similar limitations on the MOWT’s website.
Then again, if there were appropriate limitations on the number of appointments one party can book, why would these companies bother to sell slots to members of the public? Surely then, it would not be profitable.
Yearly reports show the perception of corruption in this country is sobering. I would shudder at the thought of loopholes existing in MOWT’s appointment system to renew driver’s permits; and further that such loopholes were being exploited by a few to make money at the expense of a public already burdened by an ever increasing cost of living. I do not know and hope this is not the case, but if it is, I pray that these loopholes are plugged immediately, for the good of us all.
Be safe Trinidad and Tobago.
Copyright © 2021 Neela Ramsundar, LL.B (HONS), L.E.C is a civil litigation attorney & certified mediator.
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are for general informative purposes only and/or contain the opinions or thoughts of the writer only. It does not provide legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship with any reader. For legal advice on your specific situation, please contact an Attorney-at-Law of your choosing directly. Liability for any loss or damage of any kind whatsoever allegedly incurred a consequence of relying on content in this article is thus hereby excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.