Bringing a phone into the driving test room will result in a 5-year suspension.

In a document requesting provincial departments of transport, training facilities and driving test centres to tighten management of training, testing and issuing driving licenses, the Vietnam Road Administration requires strict implementation of the ban on students bringing phones into the theory test room and on the vehicle.

"Driver's license testing centers must ensure that students are not allowed to bring mobile phones or telecommunications devices into the theory test room or on the driving test vehicle in the driving range. In case students intentionally use these devices, the centers must make a record to cancel the test results and not allow students to participate in the test for 5 years as prescribed," the Vietnam Road Administration requested.

Vietnam Road Administration deploys many solutions to tighten training, testing and granting of driving licenses - Illustrative photo

Regarding the theory test for A1 driving license (for motorbikes from 50cm3 to under 175cm3), the new regulation requires centers to regularly rotate the multiple-choice theory test questions on the test paper to avoid cases of “parrot learning”. Unsuccessful students are allowed to register with the same driving license testing management agency for a minimum period of 1 month (from the date of failure), to ensure time for re-study for students.

To prevent illiterate candidates from taking the driving test, the General Department of Roads requires students to fully declare information, sign/print their full name in the application for driving study/test as well as in the minutes of the theoretical and practical test. Any training facility that allows this to happen will be handled according to regulations.

"In particular, testing centers with FC driving license testing grounds must urgently fix standard posts and sidewalks in the driving course for the combined vehicle and winding road tests, must install cameras to monitor the testing process and must store data at the center for a minimum of 1 year," the document of the Vietnam Directorate of Roads stated.

In addition, to coordinate well with other management agencies, such as the Traffic Police, the General Department of Roads requires agencies and units to collect and report full information about training and testing units as well as the process of using driving licenses, seniority of drivers... to have information to look up in cases of serious accidents.

At the same time, with the increasing number of foreigners living and working in Vietnam, as well as overseas Vietnamese returning to live in their homeland, the Vietnam Road Administration also emphasized tightening the management of issuing and exchanging driving licenses to prevent the use of invalid driving licenses abroad to exchange for Vietnamese driving licenses.

Ms. Phan Thi Thu Hien, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Road Administration, said that after the directives to tighten driver's license training and testing, in the near future, this agency will also introduce new requirements for periodic health monitoring of drivers.