Used car dealers are losing between US$60 and US$80 a day per car due to the length of time it is taking to register vehicles at the Licensing Office in Port-of-Spain, Visham Babwah, president of the T&T Automotive Dealers’ Association (TTADA), told the T&T Guardian.
“There are different arrangements for new cars and used car dealers when it comes to licensing. They have bonded areas where they can get their cars out, park it in other areas and do not have to pay rent. Smaller dealers do not have that and have to leave their cars until they are to be cleared from the port and can incur costs of US$60 to $80 a day a car. Two weeks would be US$800. This is a lot of money,” he said.
He described the Licensing Office, where employees have been working much fewer hours per day for several months, as “incompetent”. Following concerns raised by the Public Services Association (PSA), bargaining agents for the employees, over unsafe working conditions at the Wrightson Road compound, registration of vehicles stops at 1 pm.
Babwah complained: “Dealers are facing a lot of losses because they can only increase prices up to a certain level. There is a lot of competition in the market. When dealers cannot get their cars registered in a timely manner, it takes a longer time to move the cars off the port and the smaller dealers rely on a quick turn over and they lose money. The financial losses keep growing because of the incompetence of the Licensing Office.”
Babwah also expressed concern the Government might be showing favouritism to the Automobile Dealers’ Association of T&T (ADATT). “I have heard that they are holding regular meetings with the Transport Minister. We are not so fortunate and apparently the used car dealers have been put on the back burner. I have had one meeting with the Transport Minister since he has taken up office and I have called for other meetings. I am a bit skeptical now. Are we being victimised? Is priority being given to that association?” he asked.
He said the solution rests squarely on the shoulders of Transport Minister Stephen Cadiz and Transport Commissioner Rueben Cato. “When a minister takes up a portfolio he should start dealing with the problems. If he cannot do it then let the Prime Minister find someone else. They said they are working on it but that is not satisfactory. The cars are still lining up and we cannot get them registered in a timely manner. We have disgruntled customers and this situation needs to be solved,” Babwah said.
He said he hoped the situation would be resolved before Christmas. “They said they would call me and I am waiting for that. But I cannot wait until Christmas for this to be resolved. The Licensing Office must realise this is an essential service,” he said. Reyaz Ahamad, director of Southern Sales and Service, who spoke to the Guardian on behalf of the ADATT, the body that represents new car dealers, said there had been an improvement in the situation at the Licencing Office.
“We have had regular meetings with the Licensing Authority and the line minister and we are seeing some improvements and better communication from the Transport Commissioner so we want to be sure that continues in the long term,” he said. Ahamad was optimistic that there would be improvement in the situation during December.
“There were some changes made at Licensing Office to assist the process and we found the turn around time has been improving. The concern was because we could not get the cars registered on (a) timely basis we could not deliver to customers, and at the end of the month the deliveries were not as anticipated. “That is why we said we were having a shortfall. We are getting to a very busy and short month of Christmas and with the changes hopefully we will see improvements,” he said.
Original Article : http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2013-11-27/dealers-losing-money
