On August 2, 2012, Babatunde Raji Fashola, the former governor of Lagos State established the Lagos State Vehicle Inspection Service formally known as Vehicle Inspection Unit.
The Service was saddled with the responsibility of implementing compliance with the Road Traffic Law 2021 of the state.
It also ensures that car owners comply with all the stipulated vehicle policies such as Road Worthiness, Vehicle License, Hackney Permit, Testing and Training of applicants for driver’s license or rider card and in some cases, compliments the duties of other transport agencies.
Many years after the Service came into existence, it was issuing roadworthiness certificates to car owners that paid the required fee without inspecting the car in question to certify its state.
But with the coming onboard of Road Traffic Law 2021, which made it mandatory for every vehicle owner in Lagos to bring the car seeking roadworthiness certificates for physical inspection at any of the designated centers, things started to change.
With the new traffic law, the Lagos State Government made it mandatory for every vehicle owner to get a computerised vehicle inspection on their cars.
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Prior to that, many vehicle owners do not know that they made payments for roadworthiness certificates alongside payment for vehicle licenses because people just make payments without having the opportunity to get their vehicles inspected physically before getting the certificate.
The car owner only needs to renew the roadworthiness payment without having to make any additional payment.
Upon payment, the car owner would be given a referral note, which he or she will use to go to the inspection center. The referral notes already had a booking, transaction date, inspection date, and assigned inspection center, which is where the car owners will be expected to take the car for the inspection.
To actualise the aim of carrying out a computerised vehicle inspection in Lagos, the Lagos State Vehicle Inspection Service entered into a partnership with the Lagos Computerised Vehicle Inspection Service (LACVIS), a special purpose vehicle, set up by the Lagos State Government and other stakeholders to carry out computer testing of vehicles.
The test was to ascertain the worthiness of cars on roads before issuing Road Worthiness Certificate. It was aimed at providing lasting solutions to the historical antecedents of dangers posed by having vehicles that are not road worthy on Lagos State roads.
Giving insight into vehicle inspection in Lagos, Adeshola Bamgbose, the team lead for the LACVIS, said during a conversation on a radio programme monitored by BusinessDay, that once the car owner visits the assigned inspection center on the date he or she was told to visit, the person would be given priority attention more than someone coming on the day that he or she was not assigned to come.
“This means that the car owner would be given priority attention over someone whose referral note does not carry the date of that particular day,” she said.
According to her, the inspecting agency will not answer the person whose referral note does not bear the date of the visit until they finished attending to car owners whose referral notes have the exact date of the visit.
She further explained that once the vehicle passes the inspection, the owner will be given the roadworthiness certificate regardless of the place that he or she renewed.
“For instance, if a car owner renewed at the Lagos Island office and were scheduled to visit a Test Center at PWD, he or she will get the roadworthiness certificate on the spot without having to go back to Lagos Island to get the roadworthiness certificate,” Bamgbose explained.
Many car owners have expressed worries as to their fate if the car in question has a bill on its license plate prior to the inspection date.
BusinessDay however understands that a car owner has every right to go for a vehicle inspection whether the license plate of the car has a bill of N20,000 or N40,000 on it.
But the only thing that is obvious is that the car owner will not be able to get a roadworthiness certificate until he or she pays the bill on the vehicle license plate.
Also, a person who has done a vehicle inspection can also go for a voluntary check to any of the LACVIS centers, which only requires the car owner to make payment to the Lagos Computerised Vehicle Inspection Service for the extra service.
To achieve its purpose, LACVIS opened test centers across different parts of Lagos in places such as Agric Ishawo, Odogunya, Ojota, Ojodu, Alausa, Gbagada, Anthony, Ayobo, Badagry, Bolade-Oshodi, Cele, Coker-Aguda, Ejigbo, Epe, Lakowe, Ibeju-Lekki, Ajah, Ikotun-Igando, Lagos Island, LASU.
