There is nothing to change, your inspection process is the best have seen so far keep it up.

Since we have computerised vehicle inspection now in Lagos, I am happy I can check my vehicles at any time before travelling, I am satisfied with the service rendered at the LACVIS centres.

It is hard to believe this is a government agency, the staff is polite and highly professional .Don’t relent keep flying. Thumbs up!!!

I love what you do here in LACVIS, I will appreciate if the standard is sustained.

It’s my first time ever here, excellent idea. Kudos!

It’s my first time ever here, excellent idea. Kudos!

Every year, I renew my vehicle particulars so that I will not be “taxed” or “axed” on the road. I also hate to plead for something that I know I should do ordinarily. In addition, by nature, I have a short fuse (apologies to FFK) to manage the harassment of not having correct vehicle particulars can cause me. And I also like to be on the right side of the law as an educated person.

But I have consistently failed to do one right thing on my vehicle particulars since 2000 when I bought my first car – Benz 190. I never took my vehicle for physical inspection to obtain road worthiness. I do get the document the Nigerian way. I knew this was not right. It is simply abnormal for one get a road worthiness certificate without physical inspection of the vehicle. The verdict is that we are all hypocrite when we criticise corrupt practices in government.

It is just a trend to see majority driving road worthiness “certified” vehicles that are not road worthy.

And in our hypocritical manner we still struggle to know the cause of many preventable auto accidents on our roads. Anyway, are our roads also “vehicle worthiness”? That is a topic for another day.

This year, a colleague shared his experience with me how he took his car for physical inspection after procuring the road worthiness certificate. He shared his exhilarating experience and that encouraged me to make up my mind to take my vehicle for physical inspection after I secured the traditional certificate of road worthiness.

The question however remains: which should come first, Inspection or certificate?

My fears over the years were:
The time wastage, the fear of another round of extortion, shoddy job, impoundment of vehicle and exaggeration of findings and possible fines afterwards.

So, on January 12, I drove into one of the 17 Computerised vehicle inspection centres in Lagos, Odogunyan, Ikorodu. I was curious and planned to be on the offensive just in case someone wants to be funny about the inspection.

At the Centre, my immediate impressions were:

1. Just 3 vehicles in the expensive premises at the time and that shows that there is poor patronage of the service
2. Polite and courteous greetings from the entrance security men to the Centre
3. Neat environment and smart officials

Before I could parked my car, two neatly uniformed young men approached me and were ready to open my car door for me. That really looked strange and I could not placed this out of the world experience here. What are they up to? I queried within. Anyway, I’m already here.

They asked for my mission and said they were happy to receive me. Still, I was surprised at the good unexpected treatment and I was getting paranoid. Do they want to extort me?

Immediately, they checked the already road worthiness certificate procured in far away Agege and drove the car into the auto scanning, checking and examination platform.

While this was going on, an amiable woman welcomed me with warm greetings and ushered me into the air-conditioned room with transparent fittings to see the examination going on your car by 2-3 auto technicians.

An automation, scanning machine and sensors do the readings of the examination on your vehicle.

Within twenty minutes, the results on my car was out. Six simple errors were spotted and an officer took time to explain them to me with courtesy. The errors appeared simple but an ordinary leakage wrecked the Titanic ship.

So, I went home with a “failed” assessment on the vehicle that day and yet I had been issued a road worthiness certificate earlier.

The impressionistic environment, customer service and satisfaction are all beyond what a typical public office offer in Nigeria.

Now, I have a whole month to fix the errors after which I should take the vehicle back for recertification at no extra cost. But if I failed to repair the errors within a month, I have indeed flouted a vehicle safety rule. The penalty is that, you will pay another fee to get the vehicle examined.

I drove the vehicle to my mechanic straight and I was the one telling him what was wrong in the vehicle. He listened and confirmed them. That is one of the benefits of the inspection. No more trial and error method.

Just yesterday, I took the vehicle back after fixing the errors. With no extra pay, my vehicle was inspected and I got a PASSED verdict, attached to the road worthiness certificate. I now drive my vehicle around with some measure of confidence.

The issue is that, you can just drive in to have your vehicle examined at a fee when you observed some malfunctioning and not an annual ritual we all do to fulfil all righteousness and leave the vehicle at the mercy of the auto mechanics.

Many people, like me before, have wrong impressions about road worthiness inspection requirements. But in Lagos, vehicle examination for road worthiness is a delight experience.

The modern auto center was established under Ambode in 2017 administration and honestly it is one of the beautiful things that could happened to vehicle administration in Lagos. It is a win -win situation.

How I wish commuters will ask commercial drivers their vehicle road worthiness certificate with inspection verdict.

The Centre needs to do more education and the VIO field officers should enforce strictly road worthiness certificate plus assessment report and not just show of road worthiness certificate only anymore.

The inspection centre at Odogunyan can handle 3 vehicles simultaneously but only one was engaged all while I was there, confirming under utilization of the facilities.

Let I forget, the receptionist still offered me new year gifts of sweets to their customers.

The agency is well managed and professional. It is a good representative of what a typical government agency should be.

Kudos to the team on that beat.

The lesson is, take your vehicle for examination even when you have procured road worthiness certificate. It is seamless and good, especially in Lagos.

But examination is on the mechanical of the vehicle and not electronics.

Indeed, it is in your own interest to visit any of the Lagos computerized vehicle inspection centre