Registered Mechanic (MR) licence: weights and measures, not cars

It is the licence the Department of Consumer Affairs issues, through its Weights and Measures Division, to the person who repairs and certifies weighing and measuring instruments. The application makes it clear in what it asks: the instruments you can repair and the services you will offer, the tools and verification equipment you own, and references about your skills as a mechanic of weighing and measuring instruments. On signing, the applicant undertakes not to remove the rejection seal and not to issue a Service Report unless the instrument complies with every applicable legal requirement. DACO’s Secretary may cancel the credential for just cause after considering the circumstances, and if cancelled the credential and the repair seals must be returned.

The application collects the applicant’s name, phone, residential and postal address, the company represented, training and experience, the instruments they can repair and the services they will offer, the tools and verification equipment they own, and the name, address and phone of two people other than their current employer who can give references about their skills as a mechanic of weighing and measuring instruments. DACO does not publish a formal education requirement or an examination on the form, so this guide does not assert any: what the form assesses is documented experience, equipment and references.

• Documenting training and experience, and describing the instruments you can repair and the services you will offer.Verified against the official source
• Declaring the tools and verification equipment you own.Verified against the official source
• Two references with name, address and phone, other than your current employer, able to speak to your skills as a mechanic of weighing and measuring instruments.Verified against the official source
• Undertaking not to remove the rejection seal and not to issue a Service Report unless the instrument complies with every applicable legal requirement.Verified against the official source
• To renew: filing the application fifteen (15) days before the licence’s expiry date.Verified against the official source

• Two (2) 2x2 photographs.
• Negative Criminal Record Certificate.
• ASUME certificate.
• Cheque or money order for $75.00 payable to the Secretary of the Treasury.

1. 1

   Step 1: Confirm this is the licence you want

   If you came here looking for how to be licensed as a car mechanic, this is not it. DACO’s Registered Mechanic belongs to the Weights and Measures Division and repairs weighing and measuring instruments: scales, pumps, commercial measuring equipment. The form itself asks you to describe the instruments you can repair.

2. 2

   Step 2: Write out the experience and equipment in detail

   Three boxes carry the application: training and experience; instruments you can repair and services you will offer; and tools and verification equipment you own. That last one is the one people underestimate: DACO wants to know what you will verify with, not only what you will repair with.

3. 3

   Step 3: Get two references who are not your boss

   The form says it expressly: two people other than your current employer, with name, address and phone, able to give references about your skills as a mechanic of weighing and measuring instruments. Tell them before you list them.

4. 4

   Step 4: Gather the four documents

   Two 2x2 photographs, the Negative Criminal Record Certificate, the ASUME Certificate, and the cheque or money order for $75.00 payable to the Secretary of the Treasury. The postal address the form prints is Apartado 41059, Estación Minillas, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00940-1059.

5. 5

   Step 5: Note the expiry date the same day

   Every licence expires one year from grant, and the renewal must be filed fifteen days before expiry. If you miss that window, or let the licence lapse, there is a thirty-dollar penalty. And thirty days after expiry, any renewal application is rejected outright: you must start a new licence application. Set the reminder at eleven months, not twelve.

Before DACO, Weights and Measures Division. The postal address printed on the form is Apartado 41059, Estación Minillas, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00940-1059. DACO’s main line is 787-722-7555, and the Licences extension in San Juan is 14007. The Weights and Measures Laboratory is at 1045 Calle Federico Costa, Urb. Tres Monjitas, Hato Rey, extension 14664.

• Confusing it with a car mechanic licence: it is weights and measures.
• Waiting for the licence to expire to renew, when the application goes in fifteen days before.
• Letting thirty days pass from expiry and losing the right to renew.
• Listing the current employer as a reference, which the form expressly excludes.
• Describing only the repair tools and omitting the verification equipment.
• Using the new application form for a renewal, or the other way round.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Asuntos del Consumidor (DACO)

  DACO

  www.daco.pr.gov

• Registered Mechanic Licence application (docs.pr.gov)

  DACO

  docs.pr.gov

• Registered Mechanic renewal application (docs.pr.gov)

  DACO

  docs.pr.gov