VCCI: Regulations on installing cameras on cars cause thousands of billions of VND in costs

Considering that the regulation requiring trucks to install cameras is costly for businesses and ineffective, VCCI has asked the Ministry of Transport to re-evaluate.

The Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has just provided comments to the Ministry of Transport on the draft revised Decree related to the management of automobile transport, driver training and testing services. One of the notable contents is the proposal related to the requirement to install surveillance cameras on transport vehicles.

According to VCCI, from July 1, 2021, cars with a capacity of 9 seats or more (including the driver's seat), cars used for transporting goods by container, and tractors must install surveillance cameras. Previously, in a survey of more than 100 businesses operating passenger transport with 9 seats or more, and freight transport - the subjects directly affected, VCCI said that the requirement creates a huge burden on compliance costs for businesses. "The regulation has a great impact on start-up businesses, that is, businesses with a term of operation of less than 5 years," VCCI said.

To comply with the regulation, a car may have to bear costs of about 17 million VND; of which, the cost of installing the camera is 5.8 million VND; the cost of data transmission is 1.2 million VND, the cost of disposing of the camera is 5 million VND, the cost of dismantling the camera is 5 million VND (there was a camera before but it was not compatible with the transmission requirements of the regulation).

According to estimates from the Vietnam Road Administration, by July 2021, about 200,000 passenger cars and tractor-trailers will be required to install surveillance cameras. Thus, the estimated cost to comply with the camera installation alone is VND 1,160 billion; the monthly data transmission cost is VND 240 billion.

VCCI assessed that the management goal when issuing this regulation is to monitor and warn drivers of violations, ensuring traffic safety. However, when analyzing each goal, the results may not meet expectations. For example, although recorded images are the basis for handling violations, monitoring still has certain limitations because the transmitted data is static images, not dynamic images. Therefore, in some cases, it does not accurately reflect the driver's behavior.

Cameras can also provide evidence to handle violations by passengers on the vehicle. However, there are no complete statistics on violations on the vehicle that are high risk for state agencies to be forced to monitor. As for the goals of monitoring vehicle loads and journeys, cameras do not have this function and currently the law has other tools for management.

Regarding legality, VCCI assessed that this regulation is not clear enough for businesses to determine the exact number and type of cameras that must be installed on vehicles. Another issue that has been raised is that the image factor of passengers belonging to the right to private images has not been properly protected. Meanwhile, this is an important issue that countries around the world are concerned about when regulating the installation of cameras on passenger vehicles.

The implementing units have submitted a report: "The new camera image data processing system has stopped at the testing stage. The Departments are having to monitor and extract data on the software of the transport unit, so management work is facing many difficulties."

According to VCCI, this shows that since its implementation, the camera management tool has encountered many difficulties and has been ineffective. Therefore, VCCI proposed that the Ministry of Transport conduct a comprehensive re-evaluation.

Duc Minh

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