More than 700 dis­qual­i­fied dri­vers across Trinidad and To­ba­go will be giv­en a sec­ond chance to re­gain their per­mit.

The op­por­tu­ni­ty comes at a re­duced cost through a two-and-a-half-week re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­gramme, ac­cord­ing to Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion Min­is­ter Eli Za­k­our.

Speak­ing at yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann’s, Za­k­our an­nounced that the ini­tia­tive will be rolled out at the Ca­roni Li­cens­ing Of­fice and oth­er des­ig­nat­ed fa­cil­i­ties across the coun­try, of­fer­ing dri­vers a struc­tured path­way to re­gain their per­mits. But this will be done un­der strict con­di­tions.

“There are per­sons who are cur­rent­ly dis­qual­i­fied. The sus­pen­sion pe­ri­od for those per­sons is be­tween six months and two years. At the end of the sus­pen­sion pe­ri­od, per­sons are re­quired to par­tic­i­pate in a re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­gramme. Cur­rent­ly, there are two ap­proved or­gan­i­sa­tions of­fer­ing the pro­gramme at a cost of over $1200. I am hap­py to re­port there is now an­oth­er op­tion,” he said.

The min­is­ter ex­plained that the pro­gramme for the dis­qual­i­fied dri­vers will com­mence next month, free of charge.

“It will be in­clu­sive of an ex­am­i­na­tion. The pro­gramme will be fa­cil­i­tat­ed by the Trans­port Di­vi­sion with as­sis­tance from the Traf­fic and High­way Pa­trol branch of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice. This pro­gramme will be pro­vid­ed at no cost.”

Za­k­our not­ed that while the ser­vices will be pro­vid­ed for free by the li­cens­ing au­thor­i­ty, the oth­er fees as­so­ci­at­ed with the re-is­su­ing of the dri­ver’s per­mit will still ap­ply.

He ex­pressed con­fi­dence in the pro­gramme’s ef­fec­tive­ness.

“The pro­gramme will start around Au­gust 18th, and it will be on sched­ule. It’s a very well-in­formed pro­gramme.”

A dri­ver’s per­mit can be dis­qual­i­fied pri­mar­i­ly due to the ac­cu­mu­la­tion of de­mer­it points un­der the De­mer­it Points Sys­tem. Ear­li­er this month, how­ev­er, de­mer­it points for the ma­jor­i­ty of traf­fic vi­o­la­tions were scrapped, but penal­ties will re­main for six crim­i­nal dri­ving of­fences, in­clud­ing dri­ving un­der the in­flu­ence of al­co­hol or drugs.

“As of 12 am on Sun­day, 13th Ju­ly 2025, all de­mer­it points were re­moved from the elec­tron­ic 9th sched­ule reg­is­ter. Per­sons re­ceiv­ing fixed penal­ty tick­ets there­after the points as­so­ci­at­ed with he vi­o­la­tion will re­flect ze­ro on the tick­et,” the min­is­ter said yes­ter­day.