Strict measures to be taken against oversized and overloaded vehicles.

(Baonghean) - On the morning of July 31st, Deputy Minister of Transport Le Dinh Tho, along with leaders from the General Department of Roads, the Road Management Department II, and the Department of Transport, directly inspected the handling of oversized and overloaded vehicles at Weighing Station No. 15 in Dien An. At the scene, the Deputy Minister instructed the task force to operate openly and transparently, and to resolutely remove the illegally modified truck beds.

Cut the oversized truck bed!

Despite the presence of the Deputy Minister of Transport and numerous leaders from the General Department of Roads, the Road Management Department II, the Department of Transport, and other functional officers, not all drivers complied with the order to stop. Some drivers left their cabins, closed their doors, and showed a lack of cooperation. Only when officers from Weighing Station No. 15 deployed a crane did these drivers return to their cabins and drive their vehicles into the station for weighing. In just over an hour, under the direction of Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tho, traffic inspectors and police officers at the Dien An weighing station ordered 15 vehicles suspected of being overloaded to enter the weighing station.

Director of the Department of Transport Nguyen Hong Ky (on the right) personally measures the part of the truck bed of vehicle 37C-03488 that had been illegally extended by the owner, and requests that it be removed.

Among these, three overloaded vehicles were detected, and one vehicle showed signs of unauthorized modification to its cargo bed. All violating vehicles had significantly excessive loads. For the vehicle with license plate 37V-3628 belonging to Nghe An Mineral Joint Stock Company, driven by Pham Ngoc Thanh, the total weight was measured at 36.64 tons; the permitted vehicle weight was 14.97 tons; the permitted cargo weight for traffic was 9.9 tons; exceeding the permitted cargo weight by 11.77 tons. For the truck with license plate 75C 02023, authorities discovered that the lower layer of the cargo bed contained bricks, while the upper layer contained confectionery, exceeding the load limit by 200%; the truck with license plate 75C-02679 carried cassava flour, exceeding the load limit by 80%.

After inspecting overloaded vehicles, Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tho and Director of the Department of Transport Nguyen Hong Ky conducted a detailed inspection of the truck bed of the vehicle with license plate 37C-03488. Although authorities had determined that this was a Howo truck (manufactured in China) with a bed height exceeding regulations, to ensure accuracy, in addition to actual measurements, Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tho and Mr. Nguyen Hong Ky requested representatives from the Nghe An Motor Vehicle Registration Center to urgently provide relevant vehicle information. Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tho said: “It is necessary to clearly determine when the vehicle was inspected and imported, before or after Circular 32 (Circular No. 32/2012/TT-BGTVT dated August 9, 2014, of the Ministry of Transport, stipulating the size limits of cargo containers for dump trucks, trailers and semi-trailers, tank trucks, trailers and semi-trailers participating in road traffic). If imported and inspected before the Circular, it is fine; if inspected after the Circular, it must be dealt with. Only by doing so will it be convincing.” Director of the Department of Transport Nguyen Hong Ky requested: “All vehicle owners who undergo inspection have made commitments, therefore the inspection agency should promptly transfer the inspection parameters and commitments of the vehicle owners for verification… Upon inspection, the vehicle with license plate 37C-03488 was inspected on March 11, 2014, at the Nghe An Motor Vehicle Inspection Center.” At the time of inspection, the truck bed had a height of 1.50m and two compartments. However, actual measurements at the scene showed the bed to be 1.88m high and with three compartments. This determined that the owner of vehicle 37C-03488 had arbitrarily modified the vehicle's structure by adding an extra compartment with a height of 0.38m. Based on Circular 32 and Plan 3346/KHHĐ-TCĐBVN dated July 10, 2014, of the General Department of Roads on the Action Plan for inspecting and handling illegal changes to the dimensions of cargo beds for dump trucks and modifications to increase the number of sleeping berths for sleeper buses, Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tho directed the relevant forces to cut off the part of the truck bed that the owner had illegally modified. "If we're not resolute in our actions, people will suspect we have problems. We must be transparent; what hasn't been done and what has been done must be clearly stated. There can be no cover-ups; we must do things correctly and publicly disclose what we have done to the press..." - Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tho instructed.

There will be more.many strong measures

Mobile weighing station No. 15 in Dien An has been operational since April 1, 2014. According to Mr. Tran Trong Thang, Chief Inspector of the Department of Transport, by July 30, 2014, the station had inspected 2,996 vehicles, issuing violation reports for 1,113 vehicles (including 627 vehicles exceeding 50% of the permitted load, 101 vehicles exceeding 30-50%, and 43 oversized vehicles...); total fines amounted to 3.9 billion VND. In addition, from June 1 to July 1, 2014, the Department of Transport established three mobile inspection teams to regularly handle oversized and overloaded vehicles on the roads. Total fines exceeded 1 billion VND. Recently, the Department has also established another task force specializing in inspecting vehicle modifications for processing and removal. Despite this, the issue of oversized and overloaded vehicles remains a serious problem. Mr. Tran Trong Thang said that many difficulties are facing the transportation sector, especially the traffic inspection force. "There's a lot of work, but we only have 27 staff members in total. We have 12 people stationed at the weighing station and 9 people in 3 working groups. The force is too thin, the equipment for the teams is insufficient, and the funding issue is also very difficult. Since we started this mission, we haven't received any additional funding; the daily fuel costs for our team alone amount to millions of dong. Besides, not all drivers cooperate. As you saw this morning, we had to bring in a crane before the drivers would bring their vehicles to the weighing station. That's at Weighing Station 15, where we have some options. But with mobile teams, it's very difficult. When they realize they're being inspected, the drivers abandon their vehicles. In such cases of 'evasion,' we have the right to inspect. However, they often abandon their vehicles, forcing us to wait. If we can't wait, we have to move to another location, lie in ambush to inspect, or we have no choice but to remove the license plates and notify the inspection centers." Vehicle inspection is when we conduct an inspection of the vehicle...

Vehicles showing signs of overloading are taken to the weighing station for inspection.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Road Administration, affirmed that in the coming time, the Ministry of Transport will implement many measures to address the problem of oversized and overloaded vehicles. These include working with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to restrict the import of large trucks that are unsuitable for Vietnam's road conditions; improving the quality of vehicle inspections to prevent vehicle owners from modifying or altering vehicle structures; controlling the weight of cargo vehicles at the source of goods, mines, and seaports; and improving the efficiency of weighing stations. In the future, weighing stations will be integrated with toll stations under the BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) model on major roads to thoroughly address the issue of oversized and overloaded vehicles. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Cuong stated: "Given the situation where trucks are often inspected according to size and structure but are illegally modified afterward, the Ministry of Transport has established nine working groups to inspect violations by trucks between inspection periods. These groups will revoke inspection stickers, cut away illegally modified parts, and impose administrative penalties on violating trucks..."

The illegal vehicle modifications mentioned by Mr. Nguyen Xuan Cuong closely reflect the actual situation in Nghe An. This is especially true for "tiger-dump" trucks, the type commonly used by mining companies. These trucks are often modified with cargo beds approximately 2 meters high, carrying tens of tons of overloaded cargo, and are one of the main culprits causing damage to roads. According to Mr. Hoang Phu Hien, Deputy Director of the Department of Transport, there are more than 1000 "tiger-dump" trucks in the province. Mr. Hien stated: "Currently, the Department has established inspection teams and sent documents to districts and cities in the province requesting them to monitor businesses and vehicle owners to absolutely prevent them from arbitrarily upgrading or expanding the cargo beds of dump trucks. For vehicles that have violated regulations, the owners and businesses must completely remove the expanded parts and sign a commitment not to repeat the offense. On the night of July 30th alone, the Department of Transport's task force caught 10 dump trucks carrying oversized and overloaded cargo. In addition to requiring them to reduce the load and imposing administrative fines, the vehicle owners were forced to cut down the expanded cargo beds on the spot..."

We informed the Director of the Department of Transport, Mr. Nguyen Hong Ky, about the information gathered by reporters from Nghe An Newspaper regarding National Highways 7, 15, 48, and 1A... At Weighing Station No. 15, Mr. Nguyen Hong Ky instructed Chief Inspector Tran Trong Thang to remind the mobile inspection team to immediately monitor vehicle traffic on National Highway 48. Regarding the issues on National Highway 7, Mr. Nguyen Hong Ky stated: "I will form a team to conduct a direct inspection..."

Nhat Lan - Nguyen Khoa