Delayed car plates burden importers with stocked garages and cash flow issues

Updated at 11:25am with Transport Ministry comments

Delays in issuing car number plates by Transport Malta are leaving importers with fully stocked garages, as owners await their new vehicles, MaltaToday has learnt.

Since the beginning of the year, car dealerships are having to wait up to three weeks for the transport authority to issue new number plates, according to industry sources.

“The number plates used to arrive within 48 hours, but now they take up to 14 working days,” a car dealer who spoke to this newspaper under condition of anonymity said.

A Transport Malta spokesperson said the situation has developed due to a lack of resources and an increase in registrations.

“After increasing the number of people working on these applications, TM is in the process of introducing more workers in the concerned section to alleviate this problem,” the spokesperson said.

Questions on when the service should resume to its normal timeframes were left unanswered.

Industry experts slammed the transport authority for refusing to start the digitalisation of its system.

“We are in 2023, how are we soldiering on with a manual system, and not moving towards digitising the system and making it more streamlined?” one irate importer said.

He said the delays are also creating cash-flow issues for the companies.

“We have a two-to-three-week backlog, and it is obviously affecting our cashflow. I have half a month stock of brand-new cars waiting for a number plate at our garages,” the auto dealer said.

A spokesperson for the Association of Car Importers Malta (ACIM) said the delay is affecting companies’ operations in many ways. “Our sales teams are inundated with queries from clients, who have their vehicle registration pending.”

“At a business level, the impact of delayed processes at TM has a negative impact on stock holding levels, storage facilities and cash flow due to sold vehicles having to be stored for longer. More importantly, it impacts the level of service we provide to our clients who in turn would have their own requirements and commitments for their new vehicles,” ACIM said.

Transport Ministry meets importers

Meanwhile, the Transport Ministry on Thursday told MaltaToday that a meeting was held with car importers on Wednesday in a bid to resolve the impasse.

"More people will be engaged to ease the backlog and we are also considering adopting a digital system in the long-term," a ministry spokesperson said.