Uganda is in the third part of switching over to digital license plates, but some worries are popping up about how good the system is at finding stolen cars and motorcycles. The new plates were supposed to let the authorities track vehicles in real-time, but it looks like stolen rides with the digital plates are still vanishing without a trace. An online news site called The Standard put out a report recently that raised some questions about whether the system can actually do what it promised in terms of beefing up vehicle security.
Rolling out the new plates has been a bumpy road, with delays getting them to people and confusing payment setups. Now, folks are starting to wonder if they even work right. A Russian company called Joint Stock Company (JSC) Global Security is in charge of the system. They signed a 10-year deal with Uganda's government to build the Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (ITMS) and handle making and handing out the digital plates.
The plates have RFID chips and Bluetooth beacons inside, which should let law enforcement scan them and track them with surveillance cameras. But lately, people are griping that the system isn't living up to the hype. Motorcycle taxi drivers, called boda boda riders in Uganda, were originally pretty jazzed about the digital plates making their bikes harder to steal. But now, a lot of them are getting frustrated because they're having trouble tracking down stolen motorcycles, even with the new plates.
A boda boda rider named Swaib Lukyamuzi, who works in a town called Gayaza, said he was really disappointed when his buddy's motorcycle got jacked, and they couldn't find it, even though it had a digital plate. "I thought these new plates were going to be a game-changer for finding stolen bikes, but I'm starting to think they're not much better than the old ones," Lukyamuzi said. He's warning that a lot of motorcycle taxi drivers are losing faith in the system, and the government better step up and fix these problems before everyone has to switch over to the new plates in a couple of years.
The government's responding to all the bellyaching. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Works and Transport, Susan Kataike, said they know folks are worried. She spilled the beans that sometimes the tracking chips in the plates aren't even turned on when the motorcycles leave the dealership, which is why they can't be found later. "We're telling dealerships they need to make sure those tracking chips are on and juiced up before they hand over the keys to anyone," Kataike said.
The police didn't comment on the situation by the time this story went to print. The digital plate system is at a crucial point right now, and there's still a big question mark over its reliability. As more and more people start side-eyeing the plates, the big shots need to buckle down and straighten out the kinks if they want people to trust that the system can actually keep their wheels safe from thieves.
Rolling out the new plates has been a bumpy road, with delays getting them to people and confusing payment setups. Now, folks are starting to wonder if they even work right. A Russian company called Joint Stock Company (JSC) Global Security is in charge of the system. They signed a 10-year deal with Uganda's government to build the Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (ITMS) and handle making and handing out the digital plates.
The plates have RFID chips and Bluetooth beacons inside, which should let law enforcement scan them and track them with surveillance cameras. But lately, people are griping that the system isn't living up to the hype. Motorcycle taxi drivers, called boda boda riders in Uganda, were originally pretty jazzed about the digital plates making their bikes harder to steal. But now, a lot of them are getting frustrated because they're having trouble tracking down stolen motorcycles, even with the new plates.
A boda boda rider named Swaib Lukyamuzi, who works in a town called Gayaza, said he was really disappointed when his buddy's motorcycle got jacked, and they couldn't find it, even though it had a digital plate. "I thought these new plates were going to be a game-changer for finding stolen bikes, but I'm starting to think they're not much better than the old ones," Lukyamuzi said. He's warning that a lot of motorcycle taxi drivers are losing faith in the system, and the government better step up and fix these problems before everyone has to switch over to the new plates in a couple of years.
The government's responding to all the bellyaching. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Works and Transport, Susan Kataike, said they know folks are worried. She spilled the beans that sometimes the tracking chips in the plates aren't even turned on when the motorcycles leave the dealership, which is why they can't be found later. "We're telling dealerships they need to make sure those tracking chips are on and juiced up before they hand over the keys to anyone," Kataike said.
The police didn't comment on the situation by the time this story went to print. The digital plate system is at a crucial point right now, and there's still a big question mark over its reliability. As more and more people start side-eyeing the plates, the big shots need to buckle down and straighten out the kinks if they want people to trust that the system can actually keep their wheels safe from thieves.
