The Department of Registration talks about the limit on vehicle modifications to pass the inspection gate.

Responding to a question from Lao Dong Newspaper about whether the Ministry of Transport's issuance of a new Circular on vehicle renovation amid a shortage of inspectors would cause more congestion in vehicle inspection, on January 13, Mr. Nguyen To An, Deputy Director of the Department of Vehicle Inspection, said that the Department had anticipated this problem.

"Although we know that the inspectors will have a harder time, the Department of Vehicle Registration is still determined to resolve the concerns of the people regarding the long-standing vehicle renovation," Mr. Nguyen To An emphasized.

According to Mr. Nguyen To An, one of the details that vehicle owners have complained about recently is the change of cargo boxes on the vehicles.

For example, vehicle owners who install additional metal covers to ensure that goods do not fall out are considered modified vehicles and fail vehicle inspection.

According to the explanation of the leader of the Registration Department, the regulation on changing the cargo box to be considered a modified vehicle is stipulated in Circular 42/2018/TT-BGTVT.

This circular was issued in the context of Vietnam tightening the handling of oversized and overloaded vehicles. In practice, many vehicle owners take advantage of expanding the vehicle's body to transport goods. Therefore, this regulation was issued to limit the above situation.

“However, this regulation also leads to many shortcomings. Many people want to reinforce the cargo box or install corrugated iron to protect the goods, but they have to go through complicated and cumbersome vehicle modification procedures. Therefore, the new circular (Circular 43/2023/TT-BGTVT, effective from February 15) has solved this problem,” Mr. Nguyen To An emphasized.

Another issue that people are very concerned about is the installation and replacement of some types of lights that were previously considered modified vehicles that are difficult to pass inspection.

To overcome this, Circular 43/2023/TT-BGTVT has added the following provisions in Article 4a:

1. Cases where a motor vehicle has changes but is not considered a renovation include:

a) Change of passenger compartment doors (excluding changes in door position and size);

b) Changing some cargo container structures such as: sealing or changing the structure of the cargo container door; replacing flat sheet metal with corrugated sheet metal or vice versa; adding sheet metal to the roof frame of a covered vehicle without increasing the height of the cargo container (Hc) as prescribed in Appendix I issued with Circular No. 42/2014/TT-BGTVT; adding or removing a dust cover for the cargo container of a dump truck;

c) Install, replace or remove the cover of the cargo compartment or luggage compartment of a PICKUP car without changing the size of the cargo bed and the overall size of the vehicle;

d) Install additional separate fog lights;

d) Replace the front light cluster with a cluster that has been certified or declared to comply with the National Technical Regulation on optical characteristics of front lights of road motor vehicles, QCVN 35:2017/BGTVT without having to change the structure of the vehicle to ensure installation;

e) Replace the bulb in the front lighting cluster with another type of bulb with equivalent power consumption without having to intervene or change the structure of the cluster;

g) Changing details and body parts is optional for the vehicle manufacturer but does not change the exterior dimensions of the vehicle, except for the cases specified in Article 6 of this Circular. Installation is carried out according to the recommendations of the vehicle manufacturer or the legally authorized representative of the vehicle manufacturer;

h) Changes in the design of some details of the car body such as: front grille, spoiler;

i) Install additional windshield on the truck cabin roof, steps, exhaust pipe decoration, decorative belts to protect headlights and signal lights without changing the exterior dimensions of the vehicle.

2. Changes to motor vehicles specified in Clause 1 of this Article that do not change the vehicle type specified in Appendix XI issued with this Circular and meet the requirements on technical safety and environmental protection according to the corresponding national technical regulations shall be subject to technical safety and environmental protection inspection of road motor vehicles to be granted an Inspection Certificate and Inspection Stamp.

However, Mr. Nguyen To An noted that the new Circular is more flexible in changing some vehicle details, which does not mean supporting the behavior of modifying, modifying vehicle lights and vehicle bodies to ensure safety.

“It is understood that small changes such as the vehicle body, vehicle lights or vehicle door position are allowed. However, these changes must be inspected by the inspector to ensure safety before passing the inspection. For example, installing additional lights that are of a different type, or the technician must change the electrical connection and installation without ensuring safety will not pass the inspection,” Mr. An emphasized.

East