DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN AUTOMATED TRICYCLE REGISTRATION SYSTEM

1.1 Introduction

Automated Tricycle Registration System is an information system use to track the record of the tricycles that are use in our nation. It is use by the management to effectively record, process and monitor effectively the records of tricycles. The purpose of Tricycle Registration is to establish a link between a tricycle and an owner or user of the tricycle. This link might be used for taxation or crime detection purposes (Wikipedia, 2021). Tricycle registration has received a major attention in state programs in recent years. Records have been manual which in turn has not help to raise the efficiency of general automotive services in recent years. Today, computer has been discovered as a very efficient instrument, which has played a very significant role in adequate management of information. Besides, it has played more roles in our country. However, computerization has helped in many areas of life and due to tricycle owners, the thought of computerization of this operation becomes of great important in order to wipe out the manual data processing system from which many problem have originated.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

The history of tricycle known as keke as a means of transportation in Nigeria is directly traced to the government of Mohammed Buba Marwa, who was the military Governor of Lagos State from 1996 to 1999. He first launched the use of tricycle as a means of transportation in Lagos. This led to the name keke Marwa, which tricycle is still referred to in Lagos till date. Equally, the word keke is directly derived from Yoruba, the dominant indigenous language in Lagos. However, the popularity of keke across the nation can be attributed to National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), which was inaugurated under the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo to alleviate poverty and provide economic empowerment to the people. Thus, the name keke NAPEP gained popularity across Nigeria. NAPEP in 2001 launched and distributed two thousand units of green colour tricycles with the inscription Keke NAPEP as a means of transportation in the Federal Capital Territory FCT Abuja. This was to serve as a strategy to convert area boys from idlers to a productive work force.

Enugu State Licensing Office only focuses on tricycle registration and inspection, and not on other supporting services such as tricycle tracking, learner’s driving permission, and drivers’ license management, monitoring of drivers and tricycle operations and documentation of crime report. Tricycle registration in the city, state, and district offices burdened applicants by requiring them to personally deliver the certified copy of resident’s registration and other documents. Tricycle registration used to involve manual recording of tricycle’s information. This process has been extremely inefficient and the recovery of the information was not possible once ledgers were damaged or lost as it frequently occurs.

A Tricycle Registration plate is a metal or plastic plate attached to a Tricycle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies the tricycle within the issuing region’s database. In some countries, the identifier is unique within the entire country. In others, it is unique within each state or province. There is also variation on whether the identifier is associated with a tricycle or a person. Depending on the country or region of issue, it may also be referred to as a license plate, number plate, tricycle tag, license tag, or simply tag. It is necessary to mention here that information technology have a lot to play in achieving this. Implementing automated tricycle registration system entails having access to internet, having a website and the place of strong and reliable database cannot be over emphasized.

A tricycle license is a permit issued by a state government allowing tricycle owners access to road network and infrastructure around the country. Tricycle licenses are renewed annually and show: the ownership of a tricycle, Tricycle Registration number, Owner’s address, Tricycle engine number and License expiration month. Tricycles are levied according to the load capacity of the tricycle and the purpose of use i.e. private or usage. The tricycle registration system is the repository that contains tricycle’s data and information which several stakeholders require and need to access, for the efficient functioning in their respective domains and further, in an envisaged integrated environment.

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1.3 Statement of Problem

Commercial Tricycle Registration is a job that requires accuracy of data and this exercise is required for every new registration. Therefore, going by this method a lot of problems are encountered which includes:

1. Participation of Unauthorized Officers: Unauthorized offices according to my observation are involved in this work especially in the registration of illegal vehicles which can encourage fraud.
2. Wrong Charging of Fees: The officer in-charge is bound to charge a wrong bill to tricycle owners, which may be as a result of underassessment or over assessment of tricycle. This could be with motive to commit fraud or as a result of mistake on the part of the officers at work.
3. Wrong Sales Allocation: Staff under a particular state tricycle licensing office indulges in registering of tricycle that does not belong to their state.
4. Improper Accounting: There is the tendency of the cashier involved in the handling of income generated to make mistake during this process, thus having some measures of inaccuracy in the work.
5. There is difficulty at times in tracing a record cautioning a tricycle owner due to improper information keeping as a result of carelessness or volume in the size of record kept.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to design and implement an Automated Tricycle Registration System for Enugu State Licensing Office. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to design and develop an application software that will:

1. Provide a bug free system that will allow for the generation and assignment of an infinite unique identification number to tricycles;
2. Provide a better, easier and more efficient method of Tricycle Registration;
3. Provide an accurate and reliable database of tricycle and ownership, for new and existing Tricycle Registration;
4. Provide an information system for managing daily tax of tricycles; and
5. Equip the field DOT officials with an on-the-spot ease in verifying authenticity of any tricycle plying in an organization.

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1.5 Significance of Study

A campus tricycle Registration integrated with a ticketing system for effective task management will be implemented for the directorate of transport Enugu State Licensing Office will:

1. Provide confidentiality by detecting double registration, and provide useful information to track every completed registration.
2. Provide integrity as data cannot be modified undetectably from unauthorized users.
3. Provide a basis for accurate auditing of tax account, because the system will generate a periodic report on the taxes/tickets paid for.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.6 Scope of the Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Design and Implementation of an Automated Tricycle Registration System using Enugu State Licensing Office as a case study.

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1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).

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1.8 Definitions of Terms

Registration: This is a one-off process of collecting a detailed data about a tricycle and its owner for identification.

Renewal of license: Annual activity involving renewal of driver permit for operations

Re-registration: In the context of this study this is a process of automating the registration process of tricycles by registering all the tricycles again using the proposed system.

De-registration: This is the process of cancelling all registration pertaining to a tricycle

Directorate of Transport: This is a department in every campus mostly controlled by the student’s union government that oversees the activities of tricycles.