Need to seriously handle the problem of "illegal" vehicles

(Baonghean.vn) -Recently, although the authorities have taken drastic measures, the phenomenon of illegal vehicles and illegal bus stations in Vinh City still exists and operates in many different forms. Especially the phenomenon of illegal vehicles running around picking up and dropping off passengers in places other than those prescribed, causing disorder in traffic safety, selling passengers along the road, causing all kinds of trouble for passengers.

Early last June, my friend had to go on a business trip to Hanoi. Because he was in a hurry, he didn’t go to the station but took a bus along the way. He got on the bus with license plate 37B.00073 on the Vinh – Hanoi route. Before getting on the bus, my friend asked the bus attendant: “Does our bus go to My Dinh station?”. The bus attendant pulled my friend onto the bus and said: “Our bus goes all the way to My Dinh station. If you don’t believe me, pay when you get to the station!”



Illegal cars pick up passengers on Le Loi Street - Vinh City.

However, after the bus had gone a short distance, the bus conductor came to collect the fare. At around 10 o'clock, the bus stopped in Ninh Binh city. The bus conductor announced: "Please get off the bus to go back to Hanoi." Everyone was bewildered. Some expressed their doubts. Regardless, the bus conductor still urged the passengers: "Don't worry, it's our own bus." My friend had to follow everyone to transfer their belongings to bus 35B-002.04. When the bus reached Phap Van highway, bus 35B-002.04 sold all the passengers to another bus owner. A short journey of only nearly 300km was "sold" twice, leaving all the passengers in a mess and especially the feeling of being cheated made everyone very indignant.

The phenomenon of illegal vehicles driving around to pick up and sell passengers along the road is currently a serious problem. On main roads such as Le Loi, Mai Hac De, Nguyen Trai, Nguyen Du, Tran Phu, Phan Dinh Phung, etc., it is easy to see many passenger vehicles driving around, competing to pick up passengers, and even the bus attendants lean out of the main door to wave at passengers, attracting passengers, causing obstruction and traffic insecurity for passersby.

In Vinh City, there are currently two main bus stations, Vinh Bus Station and Vinh Market Bus Station, managed by Nghe An Bus Station Joint Stock Company, with 700 vehicles of cooperatives and private enterprises registered to participate in the company's parking service. These vehicles depart from the bus station on time, on schedule, and tickets are sold at the company's listed price. However, due to the erratic number of passengers, some vehicles depart from the station but do not have enough passengers as required, so they stop to pick up passengers at the wrong places along the way, even driving around the city to pick up passengers. In addition, there are hundreds of "illegal" vehicles operating passenger transport services but not participating in the parking service. These vehicles often depart 5-10 minutes after the passenger vehicles participating in the parking service of Nghe An Bus Station Joint Stock Company to compete and attract passengers to these vehicles.

Due to the lack of passengers from the station, the illegal cars speed, overtake recklessly, squeeze, and race with cars from inside the station to compete for passengers. If they have enough passengers, these cars will go straight to the final stop, if not, they will go out of the province and sell passengers to other cars to enjoy a 20% difference in ticket price.

Mr. Vu Hoang Huynh - Head of Vinh Bus Station said: Many passengers have the habit of waiting for buses along the road without going to the station to buy tickets, thus helping the "illegal" bus owners to cheat passengers. This phenomenon is most common for customers traveling on long routes. Many bus owners attract customers by lowering the ticket price lower than the price at the station, some buses even cheat customers by including lunch and dinner in the ticket price, but in fact, along the way, customers are sold back and forth many times, sometimes other bus owners ask for more money, let alone worry about lunch and dinner.

In addition to the operation of illegal inter-provincial passenger vans, some passenger vans take advantage of contract badges to pick up passengers along the road on routes such as Dung, Con Cuong, Do Luong, Thanh Chuong, etc. Or, they disguise themselves as long-distance passenger vans, collecting passengers along the road and then grouping them into one van before departing. Along the way, if checked, the vehicle owner will present the “contract badge” to deceive the authorities.

Mr. Vo Minh Duc - Chief of Office of Provincial Traffic Safety Committee said: Currently, there are many "illegal" vehicles operating in disguise. Because they are not fixed at one location, and do not have fixed departure times, it is very difficult for the authorities to check and handle. Especially some "illegal" drivers have no experience, speeding, recklessly overtaking, and squeezing other vehicles are one of the causes of traffic accidents today.

On the other hand, according to Decree 152 (administrative sanctions in the field of road traffic) which has just been issued, for cases of picking up and dropping off passengers in violation of regulations, not keeping the vehicle, the administrative fine of only 200,000 VND is too light, so many cases continue to violate.

It is thought that, in order to contribute to ensuring traffic order and safety in the area, in addition to increasing the level of penalties for violations, the authorities need to tighten the control of illegal vehicles and illegal stations. At the same time, cooperatives and management enterprises need to equip themselves with hot phones, and drivers must wear a name tag on their chest so that when customers have complaints, they can call the authorities to check and handle the situation. In addition, passengers need to give up the habit of catching a bus along the road, and should go to the bus station to buy tickets to ensure their rights and avoid being cheated along the way.

Vo Huyen