GOVERNMENT consultants this week revealed that motorcycles and mopeds will be included in the new electronic vehicle registration (EVR) initiative to be implemented in 12 months’ time.When the initiative was first unveiled, Government decided not to tag the more than 22,000 motorcycles on Bermuda’s roads.

This caused an outcry from the Opposition, especially since the majority of traffic offenders are believed to be motorbike owners.

But Michelle Walkes from GMD Consulting — the IT project consultant for Bermuda EVR at the Transport Control Department (TCD) — this week confirmed that plans were under way to tag motorcycles and mopeds from July next year.

The initiative calls for all modes of transport in Bermuda to be fitted with radio frequency identification (RFID) in the hope that these tags will reduce the number of vehicles operating without a licence — estimated to be in the region of just under 6,000 — which translates into a loss of $11 million a year because Government is unable to enforce licensing requirements.

Since June 1, about 10,000 cars, taxis and trucks have been tagged. According to Ms Walkes, the tags, embedded inside tamper-resistant labels, are placed inside the windshields of all cars and trucks brought to TCD to be re-licensed.

The tags work in the following way to trap offenders: “When a vehicle arrives at an intersection where a vehicle-detection system is placed and no RFID tag is detected, the system will automatically take a picture of the car’s licence plate.

“This picture is sent to the violation processing centre at TCD where a traffic officer manually runs each number through a database to confirm that the car is unlicensed and/or uninsured.”

For the owners of untagged vehicles this will result in an automatic summons and a fine of up to $1,000 — although this amount might change under new legislation.