Creating fairness between Uber, Grab and traditional taxis

The Ministry of Transport has just reported to the Government on the application of science and technology in the pilot of electronic contract vehicles.

Accordingly, acknowledging that some regulations are not equal between traditional taxis and pilot vehicles such as Uber or Grab, the Ministry of Transport said that the current pilot vehicles are not affected by the system of signs restricting operations like taxis, leading to ineffective traffic organization.

Therefore, the Ministry recommends allowing local Departments of Transport to review streets with signs prohibiting taxis and at the same time propose that the Provincial People's Committee allow additional signs prohibiting contract vehicles, to ensure fairness among business types.

The Ministry of Transport proposed removing the inequality barrier between technology and traditional taxis.

The Ministry of Transport also said it had received many opinions from localities such as Hanoi, Da Nang, Khanh Hoa and Ho Chi Minh City requesting to consider temporarily not approving more pilot units, to avoid increasing the number of vehicles under 9 seats, affecting the planning of vehicle numbers, and risking traffic congestion.

The Ministry of Transport has proposed that the Prime Minister consider allowing localities that have piloted the scheme to temporarily stop issuing new badges when the total number of contract vehicles increases until a transport planning scheme is established in the area. However, the Ministry of Transport also affirmed that it will not urgently stop the pilot scheme with Uber and Grab as proposed by the Hanoi Taxi Association.

Regarding this content, in a recent document sent to the Government Office, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that it is necessary to amend regulations to identify enterprises providing software applications such as Uber and Grab as enterprises providing transportation services.

Accordingly, the fact that these enterprises consider themselves software application providers leads to difficult-to-manage and unfair consequences such as not being responsible for ensuring passenger safety because they are only software providers; not being subject to regulations on transport business conditions, causing unequal competition.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade recommends that the Government urgently direct amendments to the document stipulating that pilot enterprises are enterprises providing new-style transportation services and must meet certain requirements for transportation business.

According to Thanh Nien Newspaper