The minister personally apprehended an overloaded truck at the construction site.

Deeply frustrated by the recent serious damage inflicted on many roads in Vinh and Ha Tinh provinces by overloaded vehicles, Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang personally went to apprehend the offenders.

On the afternoon of June 14th, while Minister Dinh La Thang, along with the Secretary and Chairman of Ha Tinh province, were inspecting the National Highway 1 expansion project in Ky Anh district, Deputy Minister of Transport Le Dinh Tho and Director General of the Vietnam Road Administration Nguyen Van Huyen unexpectedly approached two Howo trucks (made in China) belonging to Dai Hiep Company, which were heavily loaded with earth and rocks, not far away.

Observing that the truck bed had been extended by about 2 meters and was full of materials, Director General Nguyen Van Huyen turned to Deputy Minister Tho and said: "These two trucks (with Nghe An license plates) are definitely overloaded and need to be dealt with immediately."

Minister Dinh La Thang ordered immediate action against overloaded vehicles at the National Highway 1 expansion construction site in Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province.

Deeply concerned about the recent serious damage inflicted on many roads in Vinh and Ha Tinh provinces by overloaded vehicles, Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tho reported to Minister Dinh La Thang and the Secretary and Chairman of the People's Committee of Ha Tinh province: "Please come and see for yourselves. With overloaded vehicles like this, how can the roads not be ruined...?"

Minister Dinh La Thang requested that Nguyen Hong Ky, Director of the Nghe An Department of Transport, who was present at the scene, clarify why these two overloaded vehicles were allowed to operate openly. He questioned whether there was a leader behind the scenes "backing" the transport company that was carrying overloaded cargo.

After a few phone calls, Mr. Ky managed to obtain the vehicle registration and inspection results for the overloaded truck.

Overloaded vehicles operate in high density on National Highway 12.

Accordingly, the truck with license plate 37C-107.05 was issued an inspection sticker at the Nghe An Road Motor Vehicle Inspection Center. At the time of inspection, the truck had a cargo bed of the correct size as prescribed, not the type of cargo bed currently installed on the vehicle.

Meanwhile, according to Khuất Việt Hùng, Director of Transport, the total load capacity of this type of vehicle is 24 tons, but with the modification of the cargo bed, it can carry up to 60-70 tons.

According to current regulations, each vehicle will be fined between 12 and 16 million VND. These overloaded vehicles will be handed over to the relevant authorities in Ha Tinh for processing.

After verifying the vehicle registration history of the overloaded truck, Minister Dinh La Thang turned to the chairman and secretary of Ha Tinh province and said, "The vehicle is registered and inspected in Nghe An, but it's operating as an overloaded vehicle in Ha Tinh. If you allow this to continue operating so brazenly without taking strict action, even the best newly built roads won't be able to withstand it...!"

The Chairman of the People's Committee of Ha Tinh province, Vo Kim Cu, promised Minister Dinh La Thang that he would strictly handle cases of overloaded vehicles in the near future.

From National Highway 1, the Ministry of Transport's working group continued to inspect National Highway 12 - a road that is being severely damaged and degraded by overloaded vehicles.

In a distance of less than 3km from where the task force passed, dozens of overloaded vehicles were still brazenly driving without any action being taken by the authorities.

Extremely concerned about the high density of overloaded vehicles operating on the roads, Minister Thang instructed the relevant departments to stop and directly inspect two vehicles with license plates 37C-053.48 and 38C-007.58.

Driver Nguyen Quy Khanh (driving vehicle license plate 37C-053.48) of Huong Thien Enterprise explained: The vehicle was registered on October 1, 2012, so the vehicle inspection agency still issued the inspection certificate according to regulations. However, the Nghe An vehicle inspection agency required the vehicle owner to sign a commitment not to overload the vehicle during use.

Similarly, regarding the vehicle with license plate 38C - 00758 belonging to Viet Hai Enterprise, Mr. Vo Ngoc Son, Director of Ha Tinh Vehicle Inspection Company, also affirmed that the vehicle inspection was issued according to regulations. However, if the driver arbitrarily modified the vehicle during the period between two inspections, the inspection agency cannot take action.

Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tho stated: Currently, the Ministry has regulations on vehicle body dimensions, applicable to vehicles registered after January 1, 2013. For vehicles with oversized bodies registered before that date, a plan is being developed to reduce the dimensions, with regulations expected to be issued in July.

Deputy Minister Tho also added that, starting from June 15th, motor vehicles undergoing inspection will have their photos printed on the inspection certificate. If a vehicle is found to have illegally modified its cargo bed, authorities can refer to the inspection certificate photo, and if the dimensions do not match the registered size, the driver will be immediately fined.

According to Vietnam.net