Abstract:
To study the development of the van service provision, involvement with policy making, regulation and public and private management of such service, both legally or illegally in which the latter would mean illegal operation of van service. This study also generally touches upon the issue of informal financial transactions whether in forms of bribes expended for the access to provide service on the routes utilized by public and legal vans, extra costs and returns from running such systematic operation and related informal expenditures toward relevant bureaucratic entities. The scope of this study is restricted to the van service provision in Bangkok from 1995-2006 while the methodology is qualitative in its approach and employs historical data, government documents and interviews with concerned parties such as the service providers, customers and relevant public organizations. The study finds that the service provision of public vans positively responds to the urgent demand of Bangkok population in place of inefficient public transport system. However, public and private management, efficiency and quality of the service have not achieved what its policy objective initially set out. Even though Bangkok population does have an increase in volume and velocity in this public transport alternative scheme, the efficiency and accidental safety of such service still needs a better management. At the same time, the operation costs are high due to informal expenditures such as the payment for running an operation on routes utilized by legal public vans, entrance depository, station rent, bribes and donations for social activities of related public organizations/departments, all of which contribute to an inability of the service providers to improve the quality of their vans as well as safety for customers, or population of Bangkok. Regarding the proceeding of departments that implement and enforce regulation policy, there should be a re¬evaluation of their roles and responsibilities, especially Department of Land Transport (DLT) and Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA). For policy recommendation, DLT should seriously proceed with detection and legal enforcement while implementing regulation policy in Bangkok and its vicinity. The van registration period for illegal vans, which BMTA is responsible, should be clarified, in addition to other registration and tax procedures, in order to prevent rent-seeking from interest groups and effectively control illegal van operation. Furthermore, efficiency in the operation, with limited staff but higher speed and quality, should be encouraged and promoted according to new management schemes on learning organization, which will help develop related organizations.