Top tips for the “okes” who hide behind little bushes

Fairly uneventful week, only interesting news was that my fiancée’s mother got a ticket for skipping a red light. The only problem was that even though the number plate matches hers its not her car! She has now been to the Goodwood traffic department three times, and each time she gets turned away because no one there can help her. On the last occasion she was there she asked to speak to the chief, but surprise surprise he was nowhere to be found. They also do not have the technology at the traffic department to view the offence, talk about incompetence. She has now been told to come back on Monday.

I managed to get a print-out of the offence from payfine.co.za, so hopefully armed with this piece of information, a picture of her car and the license registration she will be able to clear her name. What do you think will happen with the real offender? My guess is nothing, and the next time he/she jumps a read light it will be the same run-around again.

This is not an uncommon occurrence in South Africa, and the traffic department is well aware of it. Yet they don’t appear to be making any changes to their system to address the problem. Surely if they can lookup your license plate number to find your address, they can easily compare the make and colour of your car to that of the photo. Any discrepancies can then be flagged for review by a living being, who at that point can hopefully make an intelligent decision and at the same time flag the car and false number plate into a database which can be used at road blocks.

It appears to me that the traffic department is spending a lot of money trying to catch you in the act, but they are not making the most of the technology at hand. Surely they should be able to see the immediate benefits of minimising mistakes resulting in a more efficient ticketing system. If they are vigilant about keeping track of vehicles with false plates, and use it along with their number plate recognition technology found at many road blocks, the cash should come rolling in.

I think I should send them a bill for this top piece of consulting 😉