The proposal to deduct points from driver's licenses for traffic violations is a new point in the draft Law on Road Traffic Safety in April 2024, compared to the draft submitted by the Ministry of Public Security to the National Assembly at the end of 2023. This issue was studied based on the experiences of many countries such as Singapore, Japan, and China.
According to the draft, each driver's license will have 12 points, stored in a database system. Drivers who violate traffic regulations will have points deducted. The specific number of points deducted will depend on the type of violation and will be specified in detail by the Government .
The penalty points are updated in the data system as soon as the penalty takes effect. Drivers are notified of this.
If the driver's license has not had all 12 points deducted and the driver has not had any further points deducted in the last 12 months, the full number of points will be restored.
If a driver's license has all its points deducted, the driver must participate in a legal knowledge test on road traffic order and safety organized by the Traffic Police Department. Upon successful completion of the test, the driver's license will be restored to its full 12 points.
Newly renewed, reissued, or upgraded driver's licenses will retain the same number of points as before the renewal. The government will regulate the procedures for deducting and restoring points on driver's licenses.
Deducting points will help drivers obey the law better.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, the widespread traffic violations in Vietnam in recent times are due to poor driver awareness and the lack of a well-established traffic culture. On average, traffic police handle more than 3 million violations annually, revoking over half a million driver's licenses.
Although traffic accidents have decreased, they remain at a high level, with many resulting in deaths and injuries. The main cause is driver negligence in failing to comply with regulations.
Meanwhile, the training, testing, and licensing of drivers still have many shortcomings, are not appropriate, not practical, and some stages are too lax. Many trainees, after receiving their licenses, lack the confidence to drive a car on the road, have poor skills, and do not understand the law, especially traffic rules. The drafting agency stated that the management of drivers after they have been tested and licensed is lax, but there are no effective measures in place.
According to current regulations, if a driver commits a serious or particularly serious violation, their driver's license will be revoked for 1 to 24 months. On average, more than 500,000 cases of license revocation occur each year, preventing drivers from operating vehicles and affecting transportation, business, and people's lives.
The process of revoking driver's licenses is also being done manually, so many violators abandon their licenses without retrieving them. "Each time points are deducted, it serves as a warning bell, helping drivers to comply with the law better," the Ministry of Public Security stated.
The drafting agency pledged that the procedure for deducting and restoring points on driver's licenses would be simple and hassle-free for violators. The automated data system would automatically deduct points from violators, eliminating the need for them to meet with authorities in person and preventing potential negative consequences.
Similar to the "hole punching" method.
The idea of deducting points from a driver's license for traffic violators was first implemented by the Ministry of Public Security in 2003, using a "hole-punching" system. If a driver's license was marked twice, the driver had to retake the Road Traffic Law exam when renewing their license; if it was marked three times, the license became invalid, and the driver had to retake both the theory and practical exams to obtain a new license.
After four years of implementation, this regulation was abolished. The Ministry of Public Security argued that punching holes in driver's licenses did not indicate the time of the violation, and the licenses looked messy and unsightly. Furthermore, the practice of punching holes could easily lead to corruption, as drivers with many holes in their licenses would try every means to obtain new licenses.
In early 2020, when first drafting the Law on Road Traffic Safety, the Ministry of Public Security proposed the idea that each driver's license would have 12 points, corresponding to 12 months, and that drivers would have points deducted from the system each time they committed a violation.
However, in the draft submitted to the National Assembly at the end of 2023, the Ministry of Public Security dropped this proposal. But many delegates argued that a regulation on deducting points from driver's licenses should be added. Venerable Thich Duc Thien (Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Executive Council of the Vietnam Buddhist Association) cited the example of when he obtained his driver's license in California (USA), where they also applied a regulation that drivers who violated traffic rules would have points deducted depending on the severity of the offense. When all points were deducted, the driver's license would be revoked and an administrative fine would be imposed. "There needs to be a regulation on deducting points from driver's licenses in the Law on Road Traffic Safety," Mr. Thien stated in November 2023.
TH (according to VnExpress)Source
![[Photo] Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh holds a phone call with the CEO of Russia's Rosatom Corporation.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fvphoto.vietnam.vn%2Fthumb%2F1200x675%2Fvietnam%2Fresource%2FIMAGE%2F2025%2F12%2F11%2F1765464552365_dsc-5295-jpg.webp&w=3840&q=75)
Comment (0)