THE Transport Authority will tomorrow resume the acceptance of public passenger vehicle licensing applications, and will at the same time introduce its new tamper-proof licence forms and stickers.

Applications for public passenger vehicles, including stage, contract and hackney carriages and route taxis, was discontinued in October last year to accommodate an islandwide “rationalisation survey”.

However, despite the suspension of applications the survey is yet to start and will not get underway until this June.

Transport Minister Robert Pickersgill told a a press conference at his ministry in Kingston yesterday that the survey, to be carried out in segments according to the licensing area, should be completed in six months.

“.As such, new applications will be accepted for a limited period until all the arrangements have been finalised.

“Let me take this opportunity to appeal to operators of public passenger vehicles and commercial carriers to apply for licences now, as the authority will again have to suspend processing of new applications in order to effectively undertake this survey,” said the minister.

All categories of public passenger vehicles and commercial carrier’s licences, except those for rural stage carriage, will expire on March 31. However, in anticipation of the influx of applications in its four locations islandwide, the Transport Authority is expected to begin acceptance of applications on February 15, to facilitate the efficient processing of applications.

Meanwhile, Pickersgill said the Transport Authority has reorganised its operations to improve the level of service offered for the 2007-2008 licensing period.

“The authority has purchased new computers and printers with increased efficiency, through improvements in high-speed network and has retrained staff members in customer service,” he said. He added that licence renewals for public passenger vehicles and commercial carrier’s licences should be processed within five working days, while new applications for public passenger vehicles are processed within 21 days.

At the same time, the minister said close to $6 million has been spent to implement the new licence forms and stickers, to help cut down on fraud.

“Over the past years, the incidents of forgery of licences have increased, especially in a climate where advancements in technology change rapidly,” Pickersgill said. “In some instances, tampering has resulted in unauthorised distribution of routes and also overcrowding on routes,” he added.

The Transport Authority last year issued more than 44,000 licences to operators of public passenger vehicles and commercial carriers, of which 12,000 were for route taxis.