The Transport Ministry will strictly enforce regulations from 1 October by introducing a "report card" system to deduct points from ride-hailing platforms that assign jobs to drivers without public driving licenses. Repeat offenders risk immediate suspension or cancellation of certification.
Mr. Siripong Angkasakulkiat, Deputy Minister of Transport, revealed after a meeting with the Department of Land Transport and ride-hailing service providers that to raise safety and service standards, drivers and delivery riders must have a “public driving license.” Platforms are urged to stop assigning jobs to those without such licenses. This measure will take effect from 1 October.
Additionally, the Department of Land Transport will implement the "report card" system to monitor and supervise ride-hailing platforms, focusing on four main types of violations that will lead to point deductions:
Assigning jobs to drivers without a public driving license.
Assigning jobs to vehicles registered illegally or not according to the law.
Charging fares that exceed legal limits.
Violations of laws or other stipulated conditions.
The system will evaluate points every three months and reset scores quarterly. Platforms that accumulate penalties beyond set thresholds will face service suspensions. Without improvements, this could lead to app certification cancellation and legal action.
, Mr. Sorapong Phaithoonpong, Director-General of the Department of Land Transport (DLT), explained details of the point system: operators will start with 100 points, and penalties will be applied according to the amount of points lost as follows:
Impacting public interest, if violations severely affect public welfare, the DLT may immediately cancel app certification.
Operators retain the right to appeal, present facts, and improve operations to recover points or re-enter the system. The goal is not to punish but to ensure all platforms have oversight systems that ensure passenger safety and fairness.
Currently, eight properly registered apps have joined this measure. For apps not yet in the system, the DLT is reviewing regulations to enable similar oversight.
To support the new measure and facilitate drivers joining the system lawfully, the Ministry of Transport has improved the public driving license and criminal record check process, reducing the time from 20-45 days to completion within a single day. Weekend services will be added if demand rises.
Drivers without licenses after 1 October can still apply normally, but platforms cannot assign jobs to them meanwhile. If detected assigning jobs illegally, the platform will have points deducted immediately.
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