Proposal to deduct driving license points annually, shorten study and re-test time

A series of regulations on driving age, deducting points from driving licenses, installing journey monitoring devices and devices to record images of drivers have just been commented on by the Vietnam Automobile Transportation Association.

The Vietnam Automobile Transport Association has just commented on driving age, driving license point deduction, and time to study and retake the driving license test.

The Vietnam Automobile Transportation Association (VATA) has just proposed to consider deducting driving license points annually and shortening the waiting time to study and take the driving license test.

Proposal to extend driving age

At Point e, Clause 1, Article 59, Law on Road Traffic Safety and Order stipulates: "The maximum age of drivers of passenger vehicles (including buses) with more than 29 seats (excluding the driver's seat), sleeper cars is 57 years old for men, 55 years old for women."

In the document providing comments on the dossier amending and supplementing 10 Laws related to security and order, VATA proposed to consider amending as follows: "The maximum age of drivers of passenger vehicles (including buses) with more than 29 seats (excluding the driver's seat), sleeper cars is 62 years old for men, 57 years old for women.

Explaining this proposal, according to Mr. Nguyen Van Quyen, Chairman of VATA, the health of Vietnamese people has improved a lot compared to before; traffic infrastructure and vehicles are better than before; drivers at this age all have very good skills and experience.

Current evidence in Japan, Korea and many countries around the world is allowing drivers of commercial transport to continue driving until they are over 65 years old if they are still healthy enough. Therefore, to enhance health management of drivers over 60 years old, the Ministry of Health should have regulations on shortening the periodic health check-up cycle; on the other hand, our country is currently seriously lacking in drivers of passenger cars and tractors.

Regarding the regulation "A driver's license that has not been deducted all points and has not been deducted points within 12 months from the date of the most recent deduction will have all 12 points restored" and the regulation "After at least 6 months from the date of all points being deducted, the driver's license holder is allowed to participate in the test on legal knowledge of road traffic order and safety...", Mr. Quyen said that this regulation is too stressful, seriously affecting the psychology of drivers, especially drivers in the transport business.

“Currently, there is a huge shortage of drivers for passenger vehicles with more than 29 seats, heavy goods vehicles and tractors nationwide. If the current regulations on deducting points from driver's licenses are implemented, many drivers will switch to other jobs after their licenses are deducted, leading to a serious shortage of drivers for the transport business, greatly affecting the people and the country's economy ,” the VATA Chairman warned.

Vietnam Automobile Transport Association proposes to extend the driving age to address the serious shortage of passenger car drivers.

On the other hand, through synthesizing opinions from member associations and affiliated members, it is reflected that the current mindset and psychology of drivers in the transport business is very stressful and suffocating. Many drivers intend to quit their jobs because they cannot bear the pressure of having their driving license points deducted and the excessively high fines in the current Decree 168.

In addition, the 6-month waiting period to participate in the road traffic safety law knowledge test is too long for drivers. During the waiting period, most drivers will switch to other jobs to survive and very few people will return to work as drivers in the transport business.

Therefore, VATA recommends considering deducting driving license points annually, and shortening the waiting time to study and take the driving license test.

Specifically, “A driver’s license that has not been deducted all points within 12 months will have all 12 points restored”; consider amending the provisions in Clause 3, Article 58 as follows: “… After at least 3 months from the date of deduction of all points, the driver’s license holder is allowed to participate in the test on legal knowledge of road traffic order and safety…”

Transport vehicles with more than 8 seats must be equipped with driver monitoring devices.

Regarding the regulation: "Transportation business vehicles, tractor trucks, ambulances, and internal transport vehicles must be equipped with journey monitoring devices and driver image recording devices", VATA proposed to consider amending and supplementing as follows: "Transportation business vehicles must be equipped with journey monitoring devices; passenger cars with 8 seats or more (excluding the driver) for transport business, tractor trucks, trucks with a total weight of over 7,500 kg, ambulances, internal transport vehicles, and traffic rescue vehicles must be equipped with journey monitoring devices and driver image recording devices."

According to Mr. Quyen, the proposal that passenger transport vehicles with less than 8 seats (excluding the driver) and trucks with a total weight of less than 7,500 kg are not required to install a device to record the driver's image (only a journey monitoring device) is because the above two types of vehicles currently account for a very large proportion of the total number of passenger transport vehicles (about 800,000-900,000 vehicles/1.3 million vehicles) and most of these types of vehicles mainly travel short distances.

Cameras installed in transport vehicles will monitor the driver's condition.

Furthermore, data from journey monitoring devices and driver image recording devices is currently very large, but in reality, the data has not been exploited and used effectively. If it is regulated that all transport vehicles must install driver image recording devices, it will be costly for transport businesses and unnecessary social waste.

“There is currently no sufficient legal basis to sanction violations from data from journey monitoring devices and journey monitoring devices (not included in the list of measuring devices according to the provisions of the Law on Measurement and both types of devices have not been periodically inspected according to regulations),” Mr. Quyen added.

VN (according to Vietnam+)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/kien-nghi-tru-diem-bang-lai-xe-theo-nam-rut-ngan-thoi-gian-hoc-va-thi-lai-413797.html