TCIG rolls out NEW License Plates; Upgrades also mean improved security

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, December 14, 2022 – Residents in the Turks and Caicos will not have to wait any longer for their license plates as the Department of Motor Vehicles, on Tuesday, officially launched its brand new plates with decals specific to all the inhabited islands in an official ceremony.

Anya Williams, Deputy Governor said, “This may seem small but it is very big and very important for all of us. The public has been complaining for some time about lack of access to license plates and we now want to say that in-house we have over 15,000 plates. That means every person that needs a plate should be able to receive one,” she explained. “We know it has been frustrating over the period and we want to acknowledge that.”

Williams went on to describe how they would help security officers carry out their duties across the TCI “The plates are unique, they have unique identifiers they are able to be picked up by our new CCTV system because they have automatic plate recognition built into them and so they will also help us in detecting and being able to fight crime.”

Otis Morris, Minister of Home Affairs with responsibility for Transportation said while it had been a bit of a fight in Cabinet to get everyone on board with the idea, the achievement of the suite of new plates were significant.

“They will curb the issue of the fraudulent plates which we believe are currently being produced as these plates are a lot harder to reproduce,” he explained.

Morris also revealed that major new upgrades are coming for the Department; these include a new DMV database which he said was in the last phase of completion and would help reduce application wait times.  Updating local drivers licenses to international standards; and adding barcodes to license stickers which will contain all information regarding the vehicle and the driver.

Reiterating that no resident had any reason to not have the proper plates now, Wilbur Caley, Director of the Department of Motor Vehicles maintained, “If we can’t give you one of those please for whatever reason you’re going to have a temporary plate so no vehicle in any of our islands should be driving around without plates.”

He implored the police, who were in attendance not to accept the excuse from any resident that their car did not have a plate.  Caley assured this is no longer the case.

He too hinted at the coming updates, “We’re going to go to the system where – you can apply for your driver’s license online.  We are going to be issuing decals soon that will have all of the information for your vehicles so the instances of persons putting on decals that don’t belong to their vehicle will be a thing of the past.”

The new island-specific plates apply to all private vehicles, charter vehicles and taxis.

Caley had previously explained that the new Grand Turk plates feature a cactus on a green background; the North Caicos plates feature the islands vegetation; Providenciales plates have what appears to be a Beach; Middle Caicos plates show a native straw work; Salt Cay shows a depiction of a TC Islander working the salt flats and South Caicos has a red lobster on an orange background.

Residents will be called in to collect plates which will match the numbers on their current or older model license plates.