THE suspension of motor vehicle licensing and the provision of driver’s licence services at the Constant Spring Inland Revenue Centre yesterday placed strain on the Cross Roads and King Street branches.

The Constant Spring revenue centre has been closed to facilitate installation of an Automated Motor Vehicle System (AMVS), but some persons who were forced to do business at Cross Roads and Kings Street had to wait for up to two hours in long lines to conduct their business.

“I didn’t even know they are going to be closed for a while because I am just coming from Constant Spring and all the girls there tell me is that they are not doing motor vehicle registration today,” said a disgruntled customer as the Observer informed her of the temporary suspension of motor vehicle licensing transactions.

“Now I have to come all the way down here and I don’t know when I am going to get through,” she said as she stood midway in the line at the Cross Roads office.

Another customer said she had no idea about the suspension of services as she, too, was informed that the section for motor vehicle registration was closed for the day.

“It is a good thing I am hearing that from you now because I would have gone back up there again tomorrow,” she told the Observer.

Nallawe Blake, a security guard at the Cross Roads office, said the crowd was significantly more than is expected at this time of the month.

“You should have seen how the lines wrap around and even now we are about to close and look at just how many persons are still in here,” he said.

He said if the crowd increases over the next few days, the office may have to start locking the doors at intervals and letting in persons only as others leave.

“We came very close to doing that today because there were so many people in here,” he said.

A worker at the office said none of the supervisors were available to speak with the Observer as they were busy on the floor trying to assist with the overwhelming number of persons.

At the King Street office, the story was the same as the Observer was told that there were unusually long lines.

“And we are expecting even more people because when Cross Roads get too full, they just come on down here,” she said.

Yesterday, public relations manager at the Inland Revenue Department Leighton Beckles said the temporary suspension of the services to allow for the installation of the AMVS would eventually work in the favour of persons transacting motor vehicle-related business.

“The system will provide accurate and timely information for us and once fully implemented, the turnaround time for motor vehicle transactions will move from 15 minutes to 8 minutes,” he said.

He said there were plans to eventually have the AMVS installed at all 28 collectorates islandwide which will have access to one database.

“We will be able to track or ‘flag’ a stolen motor vehicle so if it was stolen in Kingston and someone goes to Montego Bay to license it the information is uploaded to AMVS online, and the particular vehicle will pop up on the system anywhere in the island regardless of where it was stolen,” Beckles said.

In the meantime, he said for the inconvenience to be suffered by customers while the change is being made, plans would be put in place to allow for a free flow.

He said that in addition to increasing the number of cashiers at the locations, the revenue centre would implement other measures as the need arose.

“There are different systems that are put in place to facilitate the changes that are happening on the ground and we do have qualified collectors in place to make the judgment call and put the necessary system in place,” he said.

Such system, he added, could include the installation of tents on the outside to provide additional payment booths. Additional parking space, he said, would also be sought in the immediate vicinity to handle the increase in traffic which is expected.