The recent boom of driver training services in HCM City with promises that all students would receive licences has stirred up public concern over the training quality.
Driving courses remain unregulated
The attractive advertisements posted on almost every corner of the streets promise that licenses after a three-month course.
The employee of one such training centre said, "The course for a B1 license, which you can get as a non-professional for vehicles that have up to nine seats, costs VND 9,2 million (USD457). But this course also offers a voucher valued at VND 500,000 (USD24) for an English course at a centre in town and the best student will win a pair of diamond rings worth VND10 million (USD478)."
She added, "If a student is worried about their test, we give clues, such as, 'if you have a question about blood alcohol, answer B, or anything to do with the traffic police, answer C.'"
In 2010, HCM City had about 38 driving centres for car and motorbike driver. The number has jumped to 70 with 49 centres for car driver in 2013. Several centres even illegally expanded their business to other provinces and were fined by the Ministry of Transport.
An official in the Vietnam Directorate for Roads said, "Many centres decided to open quick driving courses that exclude many lessons but still pass students. We need to tighten the training activities because many serious traffic accidents have occurred as a result of bad drivers."
An inspection on driving centres revealed that many lacked road-worthy vehicles and that some even allowed students to skip lessons.
Lam Thanh Trung, vice-chief of the drivers' licence bureau in HCM City said that in the first months of 2013 they granted over 30,000 licences to car drivers, but last year they revoked more than 8,000 licences.
According to the HCM City Committee of Traffic Safety, the city saw 851 traffic accidents in the first two months of the year with 133 deaths and 738 injured. Although the number of accidents was reduced from last year, fatalities increased.
"Hit and run accidents are still a major problem in the city," said Nguyen Ngoc Tuong, Deputy Head of the committee said.