the public about changes in the relicensing of private cars.

Prior to April last year, car owners were required to renew their licence before the last day of the month in which they expired.

But after causing major congestion and headaches at TCD for years the system was changed to have vehicle expiration dates fall on drivers' birthdays.

And TCD acting director Mr. Valdon Caesar said so far the system was working.

"This is just the first year. But we are already noticing an appreciable difference in terms of the traffic flow,'' he said.

"The old system was extremely stressful to staff, having to deal with 80 percent of relicensing at the same time.'' However, The Royal Gazette understands that some drivers were forgetting to relicense their cars on or before their birthdays and were therefore running into difficulty with the law.

Some were also trying to get insurance companies to backdate their coverage to the period when the car should have been relicensed, one insurance man said.

"Some people are having a hard time adjusting to the change,'' he said.

"Habits are hard to break.'' However, Mr. Caesar said those having trouble adjusting to the changes were a minority.

"Obviously with anything new it takes a while to catch on,'' he said.

"We plan to do more public announcements about relicensing.

"We hope to produce television and newspaper advertisements. We should be putting something pretty soon in the papers about this and what people can do.

"I don't think we can overdo this.'' While car owners should be aware that their licence expires on their birthday, he said they should be reminded that they can renew their licence three months prior to that date.

And he explained that the new relicensing period only applied to private cars, which -- with more than 20,000 on the Island's roads -- were causing most of the congestion at TCD.