ABSTRACT
The Land Transport Department of the Ministry of Communications was established under the Land Transport Act of 1979. Its primary responsibility is to license, regulate and promote the safe and efficient vehicular movement of passengers and goods in Thailand. Operator licences for private use or for routes/hire within a changwat are normally processed at the district office, while licences for services to and from Bangkok or another changwat arc referred to the central administration. The Land Transport Department faces a critically important decision. Not only is the Department proposing to automate a considerable proportion of its activities — which is a daunting enough task on its own, but the Department faces the added responsibility of three million vehicles and nearly one million licensees which fall under police jurisdiction. The main feature of the Department’s vehicle and personnel databases is that they are already big and could get a lot bigger with the transfer of responsibilities from the police.
