THE Road Transport and Safety Agency is in the process of implementing a Radio Frequency Identification mechanism for all motor vehicles in Zambia.
The new system that would capture vehicle details would require re-registration of all motor vehicles in the country.
Agency public relations manager Fred Mubanga confirmed the development.
Mubanga, however, dismissed reports that his organisation was due to introduce a third number plate.
He said RTSA and the Intelligent Mobility Solution, a company from Austria, with whom the agency has an agreement on road safety management system were implementing the project.
“It is not a third plate, but RTSA signed a road safety agreement to implement the road management system and this road management system is earmarked to improve the road transport and road safety in Zambia. And one of the deliverables under the road safety management system is the placement of speed cameras along major highways as well as one which needs the re-registration of motor vehicles,” Mubanga explained. “So the re-registration of motor vehicles [for them] to be captured on the new system will require RFID. They are automated systems where you can pay for road tax online. The system that we have had cannot allow us to do those things. It is a system where you have two number plates and RFID just like a reader which will be placed on the windscreen to read the particulars of the vehicle.”
Mubanga said RTSA had already started implementing the road safety management system with the placement of roadside cameras.
“We will be doing it systematically; once we rollout the placement of the cameras along the highways then next deliverable we will look at is re-registration of motor vehicles. We hope that before the end of the year, we can implement this system,” said Mubanga.
On Friday, RTSA, the Zambia Bureau of Standards and Number Plate Printer Association and other stakeholders held a technical meeting at RTSA head office in Lusaka to discuss the new development.
A source who attended the meeting told The Mast that the purpose was to validate the security features for the “third number plate” to be introduced later this year.
According to the source, the new gadget, which has a microchip, would be stuck on a vehicle’s windscreen. The source said that way the vehicle would be monitored on the RTSA system.
The source said small vehicles would be charged K500 for re-registration.
“According to them, it will have a chip that will be married with the serial number of the number plate,” said the source. “They showed us the design and the features that the plate will have but we asked them on who will be manufacturing the said number plates since none of us the local number plate manufacturers can produce them but they responded that ‘we should not worry about it because RTSA had already entered into partnership with IMS.”
He further said the move was another tax to siphon money from Zambians.
“Their major target is to reregister the entire vehicle [population] in Zambia because of that third number plate they are introducing. For every small vehicle, they will be charging K500 for re-registration,” said the source.