Photo: Dao Ngoc Thach
Accordingly, this ministry proposed that the Ministry of Transport remove the regulation that "for each trip, a transport business unit is only allowed to sign one contract" (according to Clause 1, Article 7 and Clause 2, Article 8 of the draft), because it believes that this regulation is unreasonable and hinders transport businesses from combining transportation of many groups of passengers on one route to save costs.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the Road Traffic Law does not have any regulations restricting or prohibiting carpooling services for contract vehicles. “Restricting carpooling services for contract vehicles is a restriction on the right to freely enter into contracts, which is not consistent with the need to use contract vehicles for work, school (regular pick-up and drop-off)…”, the Ministry of Justice’s document clearly stated.
Talk toPV Regarding the opinion of the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Tran Bao Ngoc, Director of the Department of Transport - Ministry of Transport, said that there are still many different opinions on contracted carpooling services, so it still needs to be carefully considered and weighed. "Some countries such as Thailand and South Korea are also in a state of not having regulations to allow it, but in reality, carpooling services are still operating. The drafting committee is synthesizing and considering opinions," Mr. Ngoc said.
Previously, in June 2017, the Ministry of Transport issued a document requesting Grab Taxi Co., Ltd. and Uber VN Co., Ltd. not to provide carpooling services with contracted vehicles because they are not in accordance with current legal regulations. Grab is implementing the GrabShare carpooling service, while Uber VN has the idea of implementing the UberPOOL service. However, in reality, this ban is just a "formality" because up to now, the GrabShare service is still being implemented normally by Grab VN and no official penalty has been issued, only a warning.
Mai Ha - Thai Son
