By Thanksgiving, the Department of Transportation plans to begin accepting all payments from the public electronically over the Internet.
Not only DOT headquarters but also the department's operating agencies will accept credit card payments as part of a push toward electronic commerce, said David Kleinberg, deputy chief financial officer at DOT.
The public also will be able to file license applications, pay fines and conduct other business with DOT bureaus online, Kleinberg said.
"You will be able to buy things like medals if you were a merchant mariner in World War II. If you are filing to become a motor carrier, that used to be a lengthy process. Now it is all cleaned up and automated," he said.
"Our objective is this: Every place we request funds from the public we wanted to have an integrated payment capability so they can do so simply and quickly," said Kleinberg.
Transportation started its e-commerce implementation in May. The first site went up in July at the Office of Motor Carrier and Highway Safety.
The e-commerce capabilities were made possible by DOT's installation of a new financial management system, Oracle Corp.'s U.S. Federal Financials. "It all happens electronically without the paper processing and reconciliations we used to have," said Kleinberg. DOT also implemented Oracle's iStore product to create and manage its Internet 'storefronts.'
Each DOT agency will get its own storefront. However, the various storefronts are all attached to the same back-end system. This means operations as diverse as the Coast Guard, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Railroad Administration, and Office of Hazardous Materials Safety, will have e-business storefronts supported by one central system.
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