Transport companies would be subject to stricter management if the draft decree to revise Decree No. 91/2009/ND-CP, providing conditions for road transportation business, is approved.
Under the draft, from July 1, 2015, before performing a passenger or cargo transportation contract, a carrier must notify in writing the provincial-level Transport Department which has granted its transport business license of information on the journey such as places of departure, arrival and passenger embarkation and disembarkation, number of passengers and time for performing the contract.
Also from July 1 next year, container trucks, semi-trailer trucks and trucks of a design capacity of over 10 tons that are used for transportation business will be subject to roadworthiness inspection and certification.
Another salient content of the draft decree is provisions on the required minimum number of cars (trucks) of a transport service provider.
Accordingly, passenger carriers providing inter-provincial fixed-route services must have at least five cars if they are headquartered in mountainous provinces, while those headquartered in other provinces and centrally run cities must respectively possess no less than 10 and 20 automobiles.
For businesses engaged in cargo transportation, the required number of trucks would range from three, for those located in mountainous provinces, to 10, for those headquartered in centrally run cities.
“In the time to come, transportation service providers that fail to meet the requirements on the minimum number of cars would be no longer licensed to conduct business,” said Khuat Viet Hung, director of the Ministry of Transport’s Transport Department. “However, there would be a transitional period for businesses to adapt themselves to the new regulations,” he added.
It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of Transport’s proposals are highly appreciated by the Vietnam Automobile Transportation Association (VATA). “Absolutely, transport businesses must be large enough to be organized with a concentrated corporate governance apparatus, thus facilitating the application of scientific and technological advances to improve their management as well as traffic safety, otherwise the transport industry could not develop,” VATA Chairman Nguyen Van Thanh said.-
