Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Cars which providepassenger transportation services via ride-hailing platforms like Grab willhave to have roof signs showing that they were “contract vehicles”.

This was a highlight in the latest version of the draft decree on automobiletransportation businesses, replacing Decree 86/2014/NĐ-CP, which the Ministryof Transport recently submitted to the Government.

The ministry said that it wanted to create a level playing field fortraditional taxi companies and contract vehicles like Grab in the context ofrapid science and technology development which was changing the transportationlandscape and causing difficulties in management.

The latest draft version, the eighth since 2016, included a new definition forautomobile transportation businesses, which said that it was a service whichincluded two major stages: vehicle operation and service fee fixing.

With this definition, any firms involved in vehicle operation and price fixingmust be registered as transportation companies, meaning that Grab would be atransportation company and managed like taxi firms.

Under the draft, companies like Uber, Grab, Bee and Vato could be selected tooperate as “electronic taxi” or “contract vehicle using electronic contract”and both must have signs on their roofs. The minimum size for the roof sign was12 centimetres in width and 30 centimetres in length.

Grab said that it was not necessary to require its cars to have roof signsbecause these cars already had labels on the windscreen. Grab said thatpassengers could recognise their drivers via vehicle number plates or contactdrivers via phones. “There is no need for roof signs,” Grab said.

Grab also said that the definition for automobile transportation businessraised in the latest draft was unclear.

In response, a representative from the ministry’s Transportation Departmentsaid that the requirement for roof signs would make it easier to managetransportation business and for passengers to easily recognise their bookedcars.

The department also said that if Grab said it was only a transportationsoftware provider, it could not intervene in deciding the services fee andvehicle operation.

Nguyen Van Quyen, Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile TransportationAssociation, said that the definition of automobile transportation businessmust be made clear to make it easy for management and business operation.

Quyen said the association agreed with the ministry’s draft regulation that“contract vehicles” must have signs on their roofs.

The application of science and technology advancements in transportationservices was an unavoidable trend but it promotes a healthy transportationmarket, Quyen said.- VNS/VNA