Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Many transport enterprises may have to spendtrillions of VND to replace their current black box recording deviceswith new ones if draft regulations on transport trading are approved.

The regulations are part of a draft decree ontransport trading by the Ministry of Transport. The decree stipulates that transit vehicles,which transport passengers from pick-up points to bus stations or vice versa,are required to have black boxes installed in their vehicles.

It also stipulates that the contents and data ofblack boxes installed in cars must be stored and saved, including theinformation on the driving time of drivers each day and the images of driversduring the day. 

Currently, the black boxes only record thelocation and speed of cars in which they are fitted, and are capable of transmittingthe information to a central database.

The Ministry of Transport requires that theinstallation of new black boxes among contracted passenger buses andnine-seat-buses or more must be completed before July 1, 2022. The work amongcontainers, semi-trailers or trailers must be completed before July 1, 2023.The work among trucks weighing 20 tonnes or more must be completed before July1, 2024 and the work among passenger buses less than nine seats must becompleted before July 1, 2025.

The regulations have been submitted to theGovernment for approval. 

By July 1, 2016 when the regulations oninstalling black boxes in cars came into effect, as many as 800 cars hadinstalled the in-vehicle device at a total cost of more than 3 trillion VND(132.1 million USD).

If the new regulations are approved, these blackboxes will have to be replaced with new ones, putting a financial burden ontransport enterprises.

As calculated, more than 340,000 cars will havethe new black boxes. The price of each black box is between 4.5-5.5 million VND(192-235 USD) and the cost of maintaining the server and data transmission isabout 120,000 VND (5.3 USD) per car per month. The cost of installing newdevices for these cars will reach between 1.5-1.9 trillion VND (66 million-83.7million USD), and the cost of maintaining the server and data transmission isestimated at 500 billion VND (22 million USD) per year.

Nguyen Van Thanh, Chairman of the VietnamAutomobile Transport Association told Tien Phong (Vanguard)newspaper that he had not been asked for opinions on the new regulations.

Chairman of the Hanoi Automobile TransportAssociation Bui Danh Liên agreed, saying that he had not been told about theregulations. 

Lien said the black box was a device fortransport enterprises to control their vehicles and driving staff. Theinstallation of the device to help authorised agencies hand out fines was notneeded, except in the case of accidents.

According to Lien, the installation of blackboxes in vehicles over the past several years had not proved effective and wasvery costly. 

With the new regulations, transportenterprises might have to pay trillions of VND to get the newdevices, wasting their money, he added.

The Government’s Decree 171/NĐ-CP stipulatedthat all cars must have black boxes installed before July 1, 2016. Vehicleswithout black boxes or installed with sub-standard devices would be finedbetween 500,000-2 million VND (22.2-85.6 USD).-VNS/VNA