446,610 digital certificates issued under e-fitness system

The Island Traffic Authority (ITA) is reporting that the Electronic Motor Vehicle Certificate of Fitness (e-Fitness) is going well with 446, 610 digital certificates issued under the new system as at March 16.

Rolled out in July 2025, the system ushers in a fully digital registration process for motor vehicles eliminating the issuance of paper certificates and decals/stickers.

This digital transformation is aimed at improving efficiency, enhancing data security, and delivering faster service to motorists.

Corporate Communications and Public Relations Manager at the authority, Dontae Matthews, told JIS News that the ITA is continuing public education and demonstrations on the system and addressing any complaints or concerns.

“As with any new digital system, there will be glitches, but the Authority, in collaboration with our partners, especially the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Authority, which is the entity that developed the system, has addressed those issues, and we are monitoring and making tweaks as time goes on,” Matthews said.

“We also have continuous public education regarding this system and demonstrations because the system is still new,” he pointed out.

Outlining the step-by-step process, Matthews explained that motorists are first required to pay the Certificate of Fitness fee at the tax office, which can be done online of in person.

They will then visit the service hub and present proof of payment of the fee, and complete a form which includes their email address and the chassis number of the vehicle.

Following this, the vehicle will undergo a thorough roadworthiness check, inclusive of brakes, lights, horn, exhaust, tyres, tint level, steering, and front-end integrity among other features, conducted by certified ITA examiners.

The examiner will determine a pass or failure and if passed, the necessary data will be entered into the system.

A reference number will be emailed to the motorist, which they use to access the Certificate Generation and Distribution System Portal (CGDS) to generate their e-Fitness certificate, which they may print, save or download to a smart device.

“If there are any defects, or if there's anything that needs to be remedied, you'll be asked to make those changes and come back, and you will not need to pay another inspection fee. You are entitled to another inspection once you purchase that receipt from TAJ,” Matthews pointed out.

He informs that the ITA has set up a customer service email for persons to lodge any complaints they are having with generating their e-fitness. The email is info@ita.gov.jm.

“You can reach out to us via telephone at 754-1900, or you can reach out to us via our social media pages,” he adds.

Matthews said the ITA has noted some of the issues that persons are having with the system, including getting an error message when they attempt to generate their e-fitness.

He notes that persons are making the mistake of entering the chassis number along with the certificate number.

“For example, when the email is sent, they receive a certificate number, and when they receive that certificate number, in brackets, we have some asterisks or bullet points with the last four digits of their chassis number. What that does, it helps you to identify the vehicle that the certificate number is for, because there are companies that may send a fleet of vehicles for renewals,” he explained.

“So, let's say five vehicles come to a hub and for all five of them, their fitness was processed, and you get one email for those five vehicles. You want to know which certificate number corresponds with which vehicle, so the last four digits of the chassis number is placed, so we don't put the full chassis number for security reasons,” he added.

He noted further that “what we realise is that some persons are copying that entire line that has the certificate number and the brackets and putting it into the section on the portal that asking for the certificate number. Now, when they do that, they're going to get an error.”

“The system is going to tell them that there's no certificate found for that, because they should only put in that six-digit number that says certificate number. In the section below that, you should put in the full chassis number that is found on your vehicle document,” Matthews said.

For persons not receiving emails on time, he is advising them to “check their spam or junk to see if the email went there as well. Just to remind persons, in order to have your certificate of fitness sent to you, you must provide a valid email address.”

Matthews is also reminding persons about the validity period for the fitness.

For brand-new vehicles, fitness certificates will have a validity period of five years, while used vehicles less than 10 years old will receive a fitness certificate valid for three years.

For vehicles older than 10 years, the annual renewal process will remain.

- JIS News

Follow The Gleaner on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.