Chile is up and running
The first station has opened in Curicó.
On September 27 our first inspection station in Chile was inaugurated. It is located in the city of Curicó, Región del Maule and performs safety inspections and emission testing of light and heavy duty vehicles with the approval of the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications (MTT). The Curicó station is the first of twelve contracted Plantas de Revisión Técnica (PRT) that will come into operation during the coming months.
For the Regional Ministerial Secretary for Transport and Telecommunication of Maule, Patricia Miranda, the new centre is an important step forward for the region.
“Before 2013, we only had nine centres and two dealerships. With this new tender we will have twelve centres and five dealerships. We are very happy because this means that all the citizens in the region will have better guarantees when they have their vehicles inspected,” the ministerial secretary said.
For the principal authority of the province, this new centre is an answer to user’s demands.
“What we want is to better serve the users in the province, particularly in the community of Curicó. Many residents complained to us that they had to wait up to seven hours to be served in some cases”, said the Governor of Curicó, Cristina Bravo.
A feature of the new inspection centre is the use of cameras for monitoring the entire process through closed-circuit television. Another highlight is that prices for inspections will go down from around twelve thousand pesos to just over eight thousand. But perhaps what will most interest people having their cars inspected is the time they will save, putting an end to long hours of waiting.
“Essentially, what allows us to be efficient is pre-booking. The centre will never be too full, with people spilling out onto the street, because they will have booked in advance. We do of course still make allowances for people who haven’t booked in advance, but users can usually expect to be served at the time they booked for”, explained Rigoberto Bahamonde, Opus’ Operations Director for South America.
The Curicó testing station has the capacity to perform an average of 12.000 tests monthly. It is equipped with three testing lanes for light duty vehicles and one for heavy duty vehicles. All lanes use state of the art testing equipment and software to comply with the standards issued by the government for the centralized vehicle testing program.
The centres that stayed in their locations were all modernised according to the bidding terms, and soon the new inspection centres in Talca, San Javier, Linares, Parral and Licantén will start operating. It is estimated that all twelve centres will be operational by the first half of 2017.