End to Vehicle Inspection Monopoly

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The end of the monopoly of the Spanish vehicle inspection firm Riteve was announced recently by Minister of Transport (MOPT) Fernando Jumenez. Riteve will have some competition when its contract with MOPT ends in 2012, he said.

Before the government instituted a single, specialized company for the annual inspections, individual licensed mechanics were allowed to pass vehicles for circulation.

The result of the old system was usually equal to having no inspections at all. Crony-ism resulted in giving smoke-spewing vehicles a free pass if they were driven by friends, relatives or attractive women. Bribery also abounded as buses laid down smokescreens and following trucks in traffic became equal to smoking three packs of cigarettes. City pollution became choking.

It was probably with this in mind that Riteve spokesman Berloth Herrera cautioned that, while Riteve welcomes competition, MOPT should make certain that certified inspectors should follow the same standards as Riteve offers.

Certainly, this is not unreasonable when one remembers the old "put 'er up on the rack and let's have a look" system once in force. During pre-Riteve days, brakes failed regularly and strange accidents occurred due to mechanical failures.

A not infrequent accident of that era was that buses and an occasional truck would lose their entire rear axles because bolts connecting suspension to chassis would rust through and break, leaving the axle and dual tires sitting in the street like a huge dumbbell at a giant's gymnasium.

Riteve-SyC is a Spanish-Costa Rican consortium that took over inspections in 2002, one of the few changes made by then-President Abel Pacheco. Mechanics previously MOPT-certified for inspections screamed in protest at having their easy income removed, as well as losing a job that their worthless son-in-law could be put to so he wouldn't ruin a customer's car.

Some opposition parties in the Legislative Assembly have used the monopoly as an issue but none of the opponents have been as loud as ATICO, the association of workshops. They claim that drivers should have a choice of inspections.