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The Ministry of Transport should take more measures against congestion at registration centers |
Although the Ministry of Transport and the Vietnam Register have made great efforts to ease crowding at automobile registration centers, the congestion at the centers, especially in the southern region, seems not to be relieved. Thus, people are waiting for the authorities to soon have more solutions to completely solve this situation.
The Ministry of Transport's Circular 02/2023/TT-BGTVT regarding motor vehicle registration has recently come into effect. It has been amending and supplementing the Circular No. 16/2021 on the inspection of technical safety and environmental protection of road motor vehicles which is expected to reduce congestion at registration centers. However, after nearly a month of Circular 02 taking effect, many registration centers in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and some localities are still overloaded, many vehicle owners have been issued inspection certificates until mid-May-2023.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Quyen, Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association, new motor vehicles are exempted from the first inspection following the Circular 02 which doesn’t help to reduce overload at registration centers, because the number of vehicles that are exempt from the first inspection each year is only about 500,000 vehicles.
In addition, the extension of the registration cycle for some types of vehicles is not immediately effective, because more than 3.1 million vehicles of this category still have to come for registration on time and only apply the new regulations in the next cycle or a large number of vehicles must be registered in the future.
According to transport businesses’ complaints, many vehicles are due for inspection but received an appointment for registration in late April or early May, so their vehicles were forced to park at home, causing huge financial losses for them. Private vehicles that cannot be operated due to overdue registration also cause many difficulties for people in traveling.
Mr. Nguyen To An, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Register, explained the reason for the overload is that some 47 registration centers in the country have not been able to reopen. Meanwhile, many registration centers are operating at a minimal capacity due to the lack of employees.
Another reason he pointed out is that some vehicle owners’ poor awareness in maintaining and repairing defects and damage before taking the vehicle for inspection led to a high rate of defective vehicles; as a result, their vehicles had been re-tested many times. Many vehicles have to be inspected many times, even some vehicles were re-tested up to 6 times to meet the requirements, leading to an increase in congestion.
Mr. Nguyen To An emphasized the need of reopening registration centers that are not working in order to solve the congestion and supplementation of more registrars to well-operated centers. The Vietnam Register is continuing to coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security and localities to reopen the remaining registration centers, especially those in Ho Chi Minh City.
At the same time, the Vietnam Register has planned to supplement as many registrars by mobilizing registrars from areas that are not overloaded to the registration centers in Ho Chi Minh City, striving to basically solve the problem in April 2023. The Vietnam Register also recommended that vehicle owners take the initiative in maintaining and repairing defects before taking their vehicles for registration, helping to reduce the crowding at automobile registration centers.
Regarding the fundamental settlement of registration congestion, a representative of the Vietnam Register said that it is still waiting for the amendment of the Decree 139 on the business of motor vehicle inspection services with the expectation that bottlenecks will be removed.
First of all, it is expected to remove the restriction on the number of vehicles inspected on a line per day. Currently, automobile registration centers have issued appointment papers according to regulations, and the number of vehicles that the inspection line is allowed to inspect up to a day is only about 60-70 vehicles a line.
Employees at many registration centers say they will be willing to work overtime to reduce congestion if the restriction is removed. In addition, the amendment of Decree 139 will also allow for a reduction in the number of surveyors required on an inspection line, from a minimum of 3 surveyors and 1 senior surveyor to a minimum of 2 registrars. At the same time, qualified warranty and maintenance establishments will be allowed to participate in vehicle inspection to help to ease the congestion at these centers.
