The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is determined to address the issue of license plates backlog for both motor vehicles and motorcycles. The agency said that it is now fast-tracking the license plate production.
LTO chief assistant secretary Atty. Vigor D. Mendoza II shared that the full production of license plates for both motor vehicles and motorcycles will start in October.
“We already have machines that will be used in the embossing of the license plates and we will start the full production this October [2023],” Mendoza said.
The LTO chief added that the agency has already ordered about 15.9 million metal plates, and around one million have already been delivered for embossing.
The machines that will be utilized to address the backlog include two robotic units and nine semi-manual apparatus. Through this, the LTO is expecting to produce around 42,000 license plates per day.
Mendoza reiterated that addressing the license plates backlog is LTO’s main priority, and he assured the public that the agency aims to solve it in the soonest possible time.
When it comes to timeline, Mendoza said that will take more than two years to finish the entire 13 million backlog on license plates. This covers mostly motorcycles and the replacement of license plates from the old green plates to the new white plates.
“It will take over two years to finish the entire 13 million backlog but while we are doing that, we would be able to cater the current usage of plates by October this year. The goal is to release the license plate for all the newly-bought motorcycles so that they would not be included in the backlog,” Mendoza added.
The LTO previously promised back in 2022 that it would address 90 percent of the license plates backlog by this year. The LTO even said that it has extended the operating hours of its license plate manufacturing plant so that it can produce more replacement plates and reduce the backlog. Despite the agency’s efforts, the LTO announced last June 2023 of impending supply problems for the license metal plates.
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