My favorite pro-Abu Dhabi propaganda magazine, Abu Dhabi Week, once published a page entitled "Diary of a Vehicle Registration Renewal" which painted the hideous process in pretty colors and made it all honey and lavender:
Diary of a vehicle registration renewal
Last week I realised my vehicle registration was about to expire. It was with fear and trepidation I made plans to renew. Armed with a satchel of documents I choose Monday to tackle the dreaded task:
9am: Arrive at vehicle registration centre on 27th Street between 2nd/Airport Road and 4th/Muroor Road. Rejoice over the sparse number of cars waiting outside the vehicle inspection bays.9.01am: Discover satellite offices for seven major insurance companies inside the vehicle registration office: ADNIC, Al Ain Ahlia, Al Dhafra, Emirates, Al Khazna, Al Wathba and Takaful. Dance jig on spot.
9.15am: New insurance policy in hand, pay for vehicle inspection at the ladies counter. Dumbfounded to discover have incurred no traffic fines since last year, but still cheeky enough to envy those with cars younger than three years old who get to skip the inspection altogether.
9.17am: Pull directly into inspection bay without delay. Give receipt and old registration card to inspector and go inside to wait.
9.23am: Barely get comfortable before inspector waves for me to come park my car and collect my inspection report.
9.25am: Return to ladies section, present inspection report, passport copy, new insurance policy,
old registration card and AED 105. Ask if letter from employer is still required (it was last year) only to hear kind police woman say, “No, no need.” Complete one full back-flip.
9.30am: Tuck new registration card away, stash new registration sticker in pocket and turn cartwheels out the door, amazed and deeply pleased at how quick this once painful process has become.
Laura Fulton
*******************************************
And here's a less glorified version of what probably happens on daily basis:
12pm: arrive at vehicle registration center, park at the end of the shortest line of cars and leave my car and husband in scorching heat while I go inside and pay aed120 for a comprehensive test
12.05: after asking 3 different employees about where to pay for the test and not getting a proper answer, locate the Ladies Only section. Take my ticket and wait. Watch as a woman in abaya and her husband in dishdash spend the next 10 minutes chatting with one of the 2 employees. (Once an Emirati "printer girl" whose sole job was to print documents, saw the Frenchie's pilot uniform and asked how much money he makes, then revealed that her salary was even higher... )
12.15: Approach an angry looking lady in abaya, without saying a word she points to the door. "you mean I need to pay outside?" "Yes." Okay then.
12.16: Interrupt guys chatting behind the ADNEC window outside. He turns around and says: "no, go to Ladies Section". Feel my blood simmer a little. "I was just in the Ladies section and she told me to come to you". "No, pay in Ladies Section".
12.17: Find the husband skillful in dealing with idiots. Drag him to the Ladies Section and hear the abaya scream: "Ladies only! Ladies only!". Apparently the guy in dishdash who was there just minutes ago is a hermaphrodite. "Where do we pay for inspection?", "Outside!"
12.19: Husband talks to the same guy outside.
12.19.05: The guy asks for my car registration and aed120. (it's a miracle!)
12.20: go sit in the car with windows covered wth newspaper and AC on full.
12.35: My turn comes, the inspector is all smiles, handle over my keys and go wait inside the smelly room full of staring men who don't know the word "deodorant".
12.45: Park the car in the lot, pick up the inspection slip from the inspector and go back to the Ladies Section to pay for registration renewal.
12.46: get the ticket and wait in line
1.05: Handle over all documents and money to another lady in abaya. She chats in Arabic to her colleague and tells me that I need an inspection report. "Where do I get it?", "Outside". ok..
1.06: ask two guys outside same question, "where do I get an inspection report". They point fingers to the desk on the other side of the room.
1.08: Get the report that reads: "FAILED", feel blood boil and start laughing nervously. My car failed the test for two reasons: "right front break tube leaking" and "wash car to check paint"...
1.09: Locate the husband drinking coffee and reading paper in a quite corner, relay the "news" and watch his blood boil :).
1.10: Drive back to Dubai having wasted half a day and achieved NOTHING.
No comments:
Post a Comment