BLA: Phased vehicle inspections resume after system outage

The Barbados Licensing Authority (BLA) has begun the phased resumption of vehicle inspections and the issuing of road worthy certificates at its Pine, St Michael headquarters, following a week-long disruption caused by an non-functioning online platform.

The disruption began on October  20 when the BLA’s legacy vehicle registration system suffered a severe failure. Andre Lashley, the Authority’s information technology consultant, explained, “The old legacy system that was managing the registration of vehicles suffered severe failure with the server going offline on October 20th. After diagnosis of the problem, it was determined that the solution was to replace the old IT infrastructure with a new platform.”

Urgent efforts to restore the system commenced immediately, involving a collaborative response between the IT consultant, BLA staff, and the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Smart Technology (MIST). Due to the complexity of the registration system, the process of restoration remains ongoing. However, a strategy was swiftly developed to prioritise critical services, including weigh bridge facilities and vehicle inspections.

The interim solution combines a temporary manual process with a partially online platform, allowing the most urgent components of vehicle services to resume while testing of the new system continues. Staff are also actively addressing a backlog of pending inspections and registrations.

Chief Licensing Officer Treca McCarthy-Broomes assured PSV permit holders that permits expiring during the outage will remain valid until full system functionality is restored. She further noted that, to manage the expected influx, the BLA will soon deploy approved private garages to assist with vehicle inspections, with a list to be published shortly.

McCarthy-Broomes urged agents and customers preparing to register vehicles to ensure all documentation is complete, including application forms, authorisation letters, insurance documents, identification cards, corporate documents, inspection certificates, declaration forms, and customs import entries, among others.