Private auto
inspection facility owners listen as officials from the Department of
Land Transport tell them to be more thorough with their inspections.
CPRD
The government is stepping up oversight of private
auto inspection facilities amid concerns many of the shops are not
adhering to government standards.
The Department of Land Transport held a seminar May
10 for Auto Check business operators at Chonburi’s Chon Inter Hotel to
remind them of standards and practices required to allow vehicles to
stay on the road.
The government began supplementing government
auto-inspection offices with private operators in 1981 and today
licenses 1,900 Auto Checks around the country. The shops are supposed to
certify that a car is in good repair and road-worthy, but apparently
many are simply rubber-stamping certificates as long as people are
willing to pay.
Ministry officials at the seminar put it more
diplomatically, saying some establishments lacked “strict compliance
with vehicle inspection standards” and “lack a good attitude toward
responsibility.”
As a result, the ministry has launched a series of seminars in seven
eastern provinces to remind the private operators they’re working as
surrogates of the government and that failure to keep rust buckets off
the road directly leads to an increase in vehicle accident rates.
