Paint color for school buses, how can hundreds of schools not overlap?

In the fourth draft of the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety, the Ministry of Public Security proposed that "School buses must have warning lights or registered paint colors for identification."

Specifically, Article 46 of the draft Law requires school buses to meet two requirements.

Firstly, ensure compliance with technical safety and environmental protection standards as prescribed, have a service life of no more than 15 years, and be equipped with warning lights or have registered paint colors for identification.

Secondly, vehicles used to transport elementary or preschool students must have age-appropriate seat belts or child-appropriate seating, and the windows must allow clear visibility of the vehicle's interior from the outside.

*The draft Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety stipulates that school buses must have a distinct paint color (Illustrative image).*

Previously, the 2008 Road Traffic Law did not contain any specific provisions regarding vehicles used to transport students.

Speaking to a VietNamNet reporter about this issue, Mr. Nguyen Van Quyen, Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association, said that this content had also been included in the draft Road Law chaired by the Ministry of Transport .

“The Vietnam Automobile Transport Association had commented on the regulations regarding paint colors for school buses. Later, in the draft submitted to the Ministry of Justice for comments before being presented to the National Assembly, I understand that this content was removed. However, recently, this content has been transferred to the Law on Traffic Order and Safety,” Mr. Quyen said.

Mr. Quyen wondered, based on the wording in the draft, should each school's school bus have its own unique paint color, or should the whole country use a single color?

"In my opinion, this provision shouldn't be included because currently, all transport service vehicles (including school buses) must meet many criteria, including installing dashcams. Now, requiring businesses to repaint their vehicles would incur very high implementation costs."

On average, repainting a vehicle costs around 5-6 million VND. Furthermore, to qualify for vehicle inspection, owners must go to the police station to re-register their vehicles. This adds to the cost and time.

Furthermore, if each school registers a different paint color, a situation could arise where a transportation company signs a contract with school A this year, but for various reasons, does not renew the contract with school A next year and switches to school B instead.

“Each school would have to change its color. That would be very costly. In my opinion, it's unnecessary. Moreover, across the country, especially in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, there are hundreds of schools, so how can each school have its own paint color? It would lead to color duplication. Who would determine if school B has already registered for color A so that other schools don't register for that color? If it were mandatory for each school's school bus to have a unique paint color, I believe the implementation would be very complicated,” Mr. Quyen expressed.

Regarding the mandatory requirement for school buses nationwide to use a single paint color, the Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association also expressed concern about the management objectives.

“School buses must meet the following criteria: they must be visible from the outside; drivers must have a certain number of years of experience; the person picking up the students must guide them on boarding and alighting according to regulations; there must be a check procedure before closing the vehicle doors; and there must be cameras connected to the management agency… In particular, the person picking up the children must check the number of students before entering the parking lot. In my opinion, these are the important issues and have already been regulated. Now we just need to legalize them to ensure stricter enforcement.”

"Regulations on paint color only have meaning when school buses are given priority and other vehicles yield the right of way... However, if this content is approved, the cost of implementation will be considerable, and the management objectives are unclear. Therefore, I believe that regulating the paint color of school buses is unnecessary," Mr. Quyen expressed.

Source