Besides engineering works, the primary responsibility of the Directorate General of Highways (DGH) is motor vehicles supervision. This wide-ranging task covers everything from vehicle and driver’s license management to the driving exam, traffic violations, and oversight of taxes and the transportation industry. With almost 20 million motor vehicles on the road, it is a formidable duty.
When the DGH was founded on August 1, 1946, there were only 5,000 vehicles in Taiwan. The scarcity meant the manual motor vehicles supervision methods used during Japanese colonial rule were sufficient. But as Taiwan shifted from an agricultural to an industrial society, the economy grew and life changed. Demand for highway transportation rose dramatically, and soon the old supervision methods were inadequate.
The DGH took a major step toward improving the system when it authorized the Telecommunications Institute (known today as Chunghwa Telecom) to design and develop an online system linking Taiwan’s highway supervision units. When the system was finished in 1986, it became Taiwan’s largest highway supervision system. As the economy continued to grow, and with it the number of motor vehicles, the DGH launched its “Second Generation Computerized Highway Supervision System” project in 1989. It became the foundation of the fully computerized system used today.
Advances in highway supervision did not stop there. In 1993 the DGH began to focus on four major themes: “friendly service, convenient service, streamlined governance, and anti-corruption.” Over the next 13 years, from 1993 to 2006, it adhered to these principles while completing 140 projects (another 22 were postponed due to legal changes) in seven continuous stages, finishing the first stage in April 1995, the second in August 1996, the third in July 1999, the fourth in July 2001, and the fifth in December 2003. The Zunlong Tour Bus Accident in 2003 led the DGH to add safety as another major theme for the sixth stage of improvements in 2003 and 2004. The seventh stage continues today (2006).
These many years of progress were only possible because of hard work and bright ideas from DGH staff. When they face a new challenge they grow more determined to find a solution, which allows for constant growth. And they carefully test each new idea before implementation, so they can maintain high standards of highway supervision.
This book is dedicated to those who have supported the DGH on its path to innovation. We are grateful to the staff at each of our supervision units, who devote themselves to improving the DGH. We hope to pass on their spirit and experiences to future highway staff, so progress can continue on the nation’s highway supervision system.