Tuesday, October 07, 2008 LTO to render fast, efficient service
VEHICLE owners, including public utility drivers, can now expect a fast and reliable service from the Land Transportation Office (LTO).
This after the winning bidder for the agency’s Information Technology (IT) system promised to keep in “tip-top” shape its services and linkages within the 250 LTO offices nationwide.
Vince Dizon, Stradcom spokesman, said they will regularly update the LTO’s IT network solution package to help the agency deliver fast and efficient service to drivers and motor vehicle owners, including operators of public utility vehicles.
“It’s a 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year commitment for us,” said Dizon adding that “they will regularly check every aspect of the LTO-IT system from the hardware to the software.”
Stradcom recently bested four other IT service providers in the open bidding for the agency’s IT project. The project will be undertaken on a Build-Operate-Own (BOO) scheme.
It offered a price pegged to the standards set by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) on the maximum fee that can be collected at P300, with a maximum allowable increase of 10 percent per year.
The firm’s bid of P120 won handily against its competitor, and its maximum fee of P168 at present represents only an increase of less than eight percent a year in the last five years.
Dizon explained that the high obsolescence rate of anything related to computers and the government's lack of funds and technical expertise for a continuing upgrade of computerized systems were what probably made government decide on a BOO scheme for the LTO-IT project.
He cited the negative experience of another government agency whose computerization effort floundered after its system's management was transferred to it by a private company at the end of their build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract.
The LTO-IT system has enabled the agency to process a lot more transaction on per person and per day basis, he pointed out.
"It now only takes an average of one to two hours to process a driver's license from an average of three to five months under the old manual system," said Dizon.
LTO chief Alberto Suansing has credited his agency's IT system for the fast tracking of the processing of licenses and vehicle registrations.
He said the computerization of the LTO was an offshoot of the government's effort to put an end to the tedious process in the issuance of drivers' license and registration of vehicles.
Stradcom has pioneered plenty of IT innovations, such as an SMS-based information and query system where in law enforcers and the general public can access relevant motor vehicle information just by sending an SMS.
It is responsible for the development of the software and business process, providing the hardware and other equipment, refurbishing the LTO offices, training LTO personnel, and interconnecting all of the LTO field offices with the LTO main office in Quezon City. (AH/Sunnex)
