Trans­port Com­mis­sion­er Clive Clarke says mo­torists should soon see re­lief from the long, wind­ing queues that have be­come a fa­mil­iar sight out­side Li­cens­ing of­fices, with op­er­a­tions ex­pect­ed to re­turn to nor­mal in the com­ing weeks.

But yes­ter­day morn­ing, nor­mal­i­ty still felt dis­tant at the San Fer­nan­do Li­cens­ing Of­fice. Long be­fore dawn, a steady stream of cars, pick­ups, and trucks stretched from Bal­isi­er Av­enue in Pleas­antville on­to the Rien­zi Kir­ton High­way, as dri­vers braced them­selves for hours-long waits to com­plete rou­tine trans­ac­tions.

The surge has been fu­elled by a spike in en­force­ment ac­tiv­i­ty, in­clud­ing in­creased road traf­fic fines and polic­ing ex­er­cis­es, which have dri­ven mo­torists back to Li­cens­ing of­fices for in­spec­tions, trans­fers and dri­ver’s per­mit re­newals.