Roadmap requires installation of driver surveillance cameras

Notably, the Ministry of Transport has issued a roadmap to require the installation of cameras on commercial transport vehicles to control the operations of these vehicles.

Over 340 thousand transport business vehicles must install cameras

A notable point of the draft Decree 86 submitted to the Government is the regulation on installing additional cameras on transport business vehicles to provide images and data on driver activities through journey monitoring devices (GSHT).

Specifically, Clause 2, Article 12 of the draft stipulates: "Travel monitoring devices mounted on passenger transport vehicles, container freight transport vehicles, tractors pulling trailers or semi-trailers for transport business activities, and freight transport vehicles with a design load of 20 tons or more must provide image data recording the driver's activities and ensuring compliance with the route."

According to the Ministry of Transport, this regulation is to accept the appraisal opinion of the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice believes that the draft Decree only stipulates that the vehicle's GPS device must ensure "Retention and transmission of information according to the regulations of the Minister of Transport". The Ministry of Justice suggests that it is necessary to clearly specify the information requirements that the GPS device must meet at least. Experience from advanced countries requires the installation of cameras connected to GPS on vehicles to monitor both the vehicle and the driver.

In addition, the Ministry of Transport also said that the above regulation is implemented according to the conclusion of Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh at the conference to review the work of ensuring traffic order and safety in the first 6 months of the year.

The implementation is specified in each phase. Accordingly, it will be applied before July 1, 2022 for passenger transport vehicles under contract, tourism with 9 seats or more; before July 1, 2023 for passenger transport vehicles on fixed routes, buses, container trucks, tractors pulling trailers or semi-trailers; before July 1, 2024 for cargo transport vehicles with a design load of 20 tons or more and before July 1, 2025 for passenger transport vehicles with less than 9 seats.

However, the Ministry of Transport believes that if the above regulation is implemented, it will affect over 340,000 transport vehicles. Accordingly, these units must replace and supplement journey monitoring devices with the additional function of providing image data recording the driver's activities.

“On the market, the price of a set of GSHT equipment with the function of recording and transmitting image data is about 4 - 5 million VND. Along with that, the cost of maintaining the server and data transmission line is about 120,000 VND/vehicle/month. Thus, the cost of installing the equipment is about 1,500 - 1,900 billion VND and the cost of maintaining the server and transmission line is about 500 billion VND/year,” said the Ministry of Transport.

Should upgrade, add integrated equipment to GSHT equipment

Mr. Nguyen Manh Trung, a driver of Ba Sao taxi company, said that recently, there have been many taxi robberies, taxi drivers are always in fear of their lives. Surveillance cameras will solve this problem. When the camera is integrated with the GSHT device, images are continuously transmitted to the center, so no robber dares to commit a crime in front of the camera.

Expressing his agreement with the above regulation, Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association, said that monitoring passengers or drivers through cameras is necessary because it will detect if the car picks up passengers along the way, stuffs passengers, the driver is on the phone, or falls asleep. This image can be checked for timely handling or to serve post-inspection and accidents. In addition, businesses can also manage vehicle operations and image data can calculate revenue, limiting fraud.

However, Mr. Thanh said that most businesses are probably afraid of the initial investment costs. Business leaders do not clearly understand the importance of this control. Drivers are afraid of being controlled in terms of fares, itineraries, and privacy and try to resist. In addition, the habit of operating and managing the system manually is also an obstacle.

According to Mr. Thanh, the most worrying issue is that businesses will have to invest in more equipment, increasing costs by thousands of billions, which means increasing social costs. Moreover, when costs increase, the people will be the ones who suffer, because businesses will add to the transportation costs.

If businesses do not realize the importance of GSHT devices, they will install coping devices such as installing poor quality goods, causing waste. Most transport businesses have installed GSHT devices according to the roadmap of Decree 86. This device is an effective management tool that helps businesses grasp information about vehicles and drivers such as: location, speed, route, driving time... At the same time, it supports the management work of competent authorities to control the situation of illegal vehicles, illegal stations, driver driving time, and which route the vehicle follows. Currently, the management agency has not yet effectively and thoroughly exploited this device. In the future, it is necessary to integrate, or upgrade, and supplement equipment to fully exploit the functions of current GSHT devices, avoiding wasted investment.

“Most transport businesses are small-scale, while large businesses have consciously applied technology to management. Authorities should focus on exploiting the full functionality of the GSHT device as an effective solution for managing transport business vehicles,” said Mr. Thanh.