All passenger buses will be forced to install GPS devices from July 1. Management agencies committed themselves to achieving the target before June 30, but 85% of companies have installed the devices for the form’s sake only.
Passenger buses to be examined for GPS devices from July 1
According to the Decree No.91/2209/NĐ-CP, all passenger buses running on 500-kilometre-routes and longer have to finish installing GPS devices before July 1, passenger buses operating on 300-500 kilometres routes have to finish installing before January 1, 2013.
Vietnam now has about 300,000 trucks and passenger buses requiring the installation of GPS devices. Vehicles that fail to have the device will be fined VND2-3 million (USD95.6-143.4) per inspection.
According to Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, under the Ministry of Transport, GPS devices need to be installed before June 30, but they don’t mention in their documents the sanctions applied on transport companies installing substandard GPS devices.
Based on the directorate’s report, only 15% of passenger buses have installed standard GPS devices, mainly those operating in the public sector. The huge remainder are small transport companies installing substandard GPS devices to cope with auditing.
Many Department of Transport in provinces and centrally-governed cities don’t have a system to supervise passenger buses. Therefore, examining the installation of GPS devices mainly relies on reports from transport companies.
On main highways, traffic police and inspectors haven’t been equipped to inspect GPS devices.
The directorate has suggested the Ministry of Transport require the Vietnam Register to audit technology features for GPS devices based on standard quality regulations when licensing vehicles.
According to Bui Danh Lien, Chairman of Hanoi Transportation Association, transport companies have invested VND200 billion (USD9,560) to install GPS devices for 35,000 vehicles, but most of them are unaware of the Decree No.08/2011/TT-BGTVT, so they haven’t paid much attention to the quality of the devices.
“There are transport companies that have abolished the use of the devices in order to ignore the alert when exceeding fixed speeds or they lacking USB access to GPS devices.
Many companies cannot control the quality of the devices bought from other companies. There are special cases where the vehicle has been installed with a GPS device but they haven’t been turned on.
Therefore, the Chairman proposed the ministry to require licensed GPS devices supply companies to be responsible for the quality of the devices when installed and that these devices should be maintained periodically for transport companies. If they don’t meet the requirements of the ministry, the companies should have their licenses revoked.
GPS devices installed just to pass examinations
