Biz Buzz: Drivers’ license woes

Don’t look now, but Biz Buzz has been made aware once more of what seems like poor planning by the Department of Transportation and Communications and the Land Transportation Office regarding the recent bidding and awarding of the long delayed drivers’ license contract.

After a delay of five years, the LTO auctioned off the drivers’ license contract, and a new supplier—AllCard—won over the Iglesia ni Cristo-controlled Amalgamated Motors Philippines Inc. (Ampi), which has been the contractor since 1983.

The DOTC and Malacañang immediately issued a press statement announcing that they would solve the card supply shortage starting this month. They were confident in saying that because the bid required that the supply of card printers and cards be delivered to all 233 LTO sites nationwide within 30 days from issuance of the Notice to Proceed. Naturally, all bidders said “yes” they could deliver to avoid being disqualified.

In reality, however, that is an outrageous requirement since there is no card printer manufacturer in the world that has a ready inventory of 233 printers. LTO must have thought that those printers could be bought off the shelf at a supermarket.

Apparently, the winning bidder, AllCard, knows that its printer supplier “Datacard” could not meet the deadline. It could only complete the 233 units in three to four months, excluding shipping.

Incidentally, Datacard cannot rush the manufacturing process because it just orders the printers from Japan’s JVC which, in turn, manufactures it under the Datacard brand. JVC also manufactures the same kind of printer for other printer suppliers worldwide, which is why the soonest they can deliver these printers is in three months, if we’re lucky.

Including the time it will take to ship these printers to all LTO offices nationwide and to train all LTO people to operate them, it will take several months more to start manufacturing. A more realistic timeframe would be between October and December, we’re told.

Making matters worse is that, the old contractor, Ampi, already has an existing backlog of one million drivers’ license cards and running. As it stands, it will take an applicant anywhere from four to six months to get his card. (If he is willing to pay more, then he gets it instantly while waiting inside the air-conditioned room of the district LTO chief).

Of course, one would presume that the new contractor, AllCard, would be tasked by DOTC to clear out the one-million card backlog, right? Wrong. This backlog is not part of the new contract.

We hear that the DOTC is still requiring Ampi to deliver the one million cards, despite Ampi having no contract. Because the Commission on Audit disallowed all payments to them, the firm can no longer supply these precious cards—yet the DOTC is still confident that Ampi can deliver.

So going forward, driver’s license applicants will probably be faced with two queues—one for Ampi and another for AllCard.

Incidentally, do you also know that the 2D barcode in the current driver’s license card is nothing more than a decoration? Yes, our sources tell us that it does not contain any data.

Similar to the much ballyhooed car plates, a bar code reader wouldn’t even recognize the printed lines on the driver’s license.

It makes one wonder: Why would one need a barcode on the license card when the name and address of the owner is already printed there? In the same manner, why would one need a barcode on car plates when one already has the plate numbers printed there?

Our sources tell us that foreign suppliers are chuckling behind the backs of the DOTC and LTO officials because of these “brilliant” specifications and requirements.

Nice going, guys. Daxim L. Lucas

Skyway safety

WITH reports of some vehicles accidentally falling off the Skyway (whether the driver is at fault or not), the San Miguel-led consortium operating the elevated tollroad concession acknowledges the need to redesign what some people describe as a “puny” wall on either side of the highway.

The existing Skyway was built by the original concessionaires based on the old specifications of the Department of Public Works and Highways long before his group got into the business, said San Miguel Corp. president Ramon S. Ang.

The Citra-San Miguel consortium – which is now building the much-awaited connector road that will link the Skyway from Sen. Gil Puyat Ave. in Makati City to the North Luzon Expressway in Balintawak, Quezon City—now vows to use a new design for the new section of the elevated tollroad. He also said the group would fix the existing walls of the old Skyway stretch to follow newer and safer design standards.

For instance, Ang said the elevated tollroad will be bordered by a higher and sturdier wall while the ‘bangketa’ or that small stretch of concrete at the edge of such a wall (which some motorists say can cause a high-speeding car that hits the border to jump over it) would be removed. How to discipline the bad drivers, on the other hand, is another perennial hurdle in the metropolis. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

Competition law

MAYBE you haven’t noticed but Congress is now on its long break and won’t be back until the next State of the Nation Address (Sona) by President Aquino on July 28, his last one.

In fairness to the senators and congressmen, there are several things they can crow about in the just concluded second regular session.

First and foremost is their refusal to rubber stamp the Palace version of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which obviously needed a lot of refinements and fine-tuning. Another is the approval of the bill to postpone the elections for the Sangguniang Kabataan, which saved the government a lot of money.

But perhaps their biggest accomplishment is the passage of the much-delayed Competition Law—a piece of legislation that, similar the much-touted Freedom of Information Bill, has been languishing in Congress for almost 20 years.

Finally, under the stewardship of Senate Trade Committee Chief Sen. Bam Aquino and his House counterpart Rep. Mark Villar, the bill has seen the light of day. This law is crucial to the Philippines’ preparations for the coming Asean economic integration. And at the ground level, it finally gives protection to small companies and brands that are at the mercy of unfair trade practices of bigger corporations.

For example, there are rumors that in the highly competitive tobacco industry, one big company is offering incentives to sari-sari store owners if they will not carry Pall Mall—a brand that was recently re-launched by British American Tobacco. Pall Mall still has a very small market share but reportedly with a lot of consumer potential, and thus has allegedly been targeted by the big company in an apparent effort to prevent its take-off in the market.

This kind of trade practice is one form of a barrier to entry and will be prohibited once the new Competition Law goes into effect.

Many are hoping that President Aquino will waste no time signing the bill into law before his Sona. Margie Quimpo-Espino

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