Unifying license plate colors for transport businesses: Many benefits

This will create more favorable conditions for traffic management and operation and ensure fairness, transparency, and healthy competition among types of transportation businesses. In the proposed amendments and supplements to the Road Traffic Law, the Vietnam Road Administration said that it will soon propose that the Ministry of Transport and the Government supplement the regulation on a separate license plate color of yellow for all vehicles engaged in transportation business to distinguish them from private vehicles. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Huyen, Director General of the Vietnam Road Administration, vehicles engaged in transportation business are currently granted badges for up to 7 years. When the badge is blurred or the driver does not affix the badge, it will cause difficulties for the authorities because they will not know whether the vehicle is engaged in transportation business or not.

By specifying a separate license plate color, the authorities will immediately know that it is a commercial transport vehicle, easily penalizing violating vehicles, and at the same time helping the management agency to conveniently organize and operate traffic...

Acknowledging these difficulties, Mr. Dao Viet Long, Head of the Transport Management Department (Hanoi Department of Transport) said that recently, Hanoi has organized the installation of signs prohibiting contract vehicles with less than 9 seats, including Uber and Grab, from operating on 11 central streets during rush hours like taxis; requiring companies operating contract vehicles to affix badges on their vehicles.

However, the reality is that many Uber and Grab contract vehicles have very small badges and still find ways to bypass authorities to pick up and drop off passengers on prohibited streets. Therefore, it is urgent to have a uniform color for the license plates of transport businesses.

Having lived abroad for many years, Mr. Pham Hung, Nam Trung Yen Urban Area (Trung Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District) shared that there are countries and cities that clearly stipulate that business vehicles (for example, taxis) must have the same license plate color and paint color. This regulation helps authorities conveniently manage, inspect and handle violations, and people can easily distinguish them to call for a car when needed.

In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the number of personal vehicles has increased rapidly in recent times. Many of them buy cars to register for Uber and Grab, leading to oversupply and increasing pressure on traffic infrastructure. Therefore, when regulating the color of license plates, only those who really need them will buy cars for business.

Regarding the fact that many Uber and Grab cars do not have badges, or have small, hard-to-recognize badges, but still openly pick up and drop off passengers on 11 prohibited streets, Mr. Nguyen Cong Hung, Chairman of the Hanoi Taxi Association, was indignant: It is not easy for the authorities to detect and handle violations, because contract cars with less than 9 seats, when removing stickers and logos, will not be distinguishable from private cars.

Therefore, it is necessary to soon have a regulation on a common type of license plate to ensure fairness and healthy competition. On the other hand, if business vehicles are issued with a common color license plate, it will help eliminate cumbersome logos and badges, causing waste.

Supporting this policy, some opinions emphasized that this is a good solution to eliminate the situation of "illegal" vehicles and "disguised" passenger vehicles. However, there should be a plan to encourage license plate conversion to avoid causing damage to businesses and people. With a large number of vehicles operating in the transport industry nationwide, businesses will incur large costs due to the time it takes to re-register license plates, procedures at banks and vehicles having to stop operating while waiting for the license plate to be changed.