Booking appointments at the Transport Control Department (TCD) can now be made online ? thanks to the Appointment Management System.

The new system was unveiled yesterday by Transport Minister Ewart Brown at the Transport Control Department.

Dr. Brown took part in a test demonstration of how the system works. For the past several months TCD has been transferring their customer services online as an important phase of the eTCD initiative.

The Appointment Management System will allow for the efficient management of appointments at the TCD, Dr. Brown said. Residents will be able to book appointments at their leisure, 24 hours a day.

Anyone with a valid Bermuda Driving Licence or Learner?s Permit can self register at www.etcd.gov.bm and the process can be completed in two minutes.

?The public can now search for available appointments by preferred date and time, book and review existing appointments and instantly receive confirmation of their scheduled appointment,? Dr. Brown said.

Some of the features of the system include booking appointments for vehicle examinations, transfer and driving tests, changing existing appointments or cancellation of appointments.

The system will send emails to the vehicle owner to remind them of an upcoming test or remind them that the driver?s vehicle is approaching expiration.

Residents will only be able to make appointments for vehicles they own and driving tests for themselves.

If individuals are partial owners of vehicles, only the primary owner will be allowed to book an appointment for the vehicle.

?We have also made system available for business organisations which will be able to access the system to book appointments for their vehicles,? Dr. Brown said. Companies are instructed to visit www.etcd.gov.bm to request a login and password.

?I want to point out that we have had some experience with the efficiency of the system, as TCD has been using it since February to store all appointments electronically,? Dr. Brown said.

He added: ?Previously all appointments, cancellations and confirmations were recorded manually in appointment books.?

The Minister said the staff of TCD were instrumental in facilitating the completion of the new system, including the former TCD director Kevin Monkman, current TCD director Randy Brangman and Information Technology TCD Project manager David Burch.