There’s still no target date for the launch of the state Department of Transportation’s statewide Electronic Periodic Vehicle Inspection Reporting Program, but there will be a trade-off for consumers once it’s implemented.
The computerized program would do away with the current process of hiring a mainland company to input information about motor vehicle safety inspections, which sometimes has resulted in delays in updating the database. (See is.gd/cgAPYE.)
Electronic reporting would mean data could be updated overnight, but it will come at a cost.
Current safety inspection fees set by the DOT are $14.70, plus tax, for cars and light trucks and $8.75, plus tax, for motorcycles. Once the electronic reporting program is in place, the DOT is proposing to increase the fees to $19.19, plus tax, for cars and light trucks and $13.24, plus tax, for motorcycles, a spokesman said.
Fees for a replacement sticker will increase to $6.69 from $5.
“The increases are necessary to facilitate the automated inspection system and minimize the program costs to the DOT,” the spokesman said.
Currently the DOT receives $1.50 from the fees collected by the inspection stations — 50 cents for the safety sticker and $1 for administrative and enforcement costs.
The new contract itself would not cost the state or the counties anything, outside of costs associated with contract administration and personnel, the spokesman said.
The DOT had awarded the contract to Parsons Environment and Infrastructure Group Inc., but “there is currently a stay on the award” because of a protest filed by World Wide Environmental Products Inc., he said.
The first step in the resolution will be a hearing at the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs’ Office of Administrative Hearings. If the matter is not resolved there, an appeal can then be made to state Circuit Court.
“The resolution time frame is uncertain right now,” according to the DOT spokesman.
But once the contract dispute is resolved, it would take less than a week to finalize the contract. Once the contract is signed, the DOT anticipates the program will be “installed and operating within six months.”
Question: I go to Kapiolani Park on weekends, and everybody has conflicting ideas as to whether you have to feed the meters Sundays at the parking spaces along the ocean side of the park. Can you clear this up for us?
Answer: You have to feed the meters seven days a week, including holidays, but only between certain hours, according to the Honolulu Police Department’s Parking Enforcement & Collections Section.
The meters adjacent to Kapiolani Park along Kalakaua Avenue are
50 cents an hour, seven days a week, including holidays, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a four-hour time limit. Parking is free from 6 p.m. to 10 a.m.
Mahalo
Belatedly, to the work crew who helped my 92-year-old mom when she fell on Kilauea Avenue near Wilson Elementary School in February. It’s taken me this long to get the story out of her! Apparently, she tripped on the sidewalk, fell and couldn’t get up. She said someone from a crew working nearby helped her up, and one of the workers walked her all the way home. She broke her collarbone but it is healing well. Without their help, things could have gone very badly. — Jean Simon
Auwe
To dishonest people. I use a cane as an aid for balance and walking. Throughout the years, I have left four canes in shopping carts. Of the four, only one was returned to the store, which enabled me to retrieve it. My name and phone number were on all four of the canes. — A Disappointed Senior
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Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
