Transport businesses face difficulties due to having to change vehicle registration papers

These past few days, Mr. Hoang Le, director of a logistics transportation company in Hanoi, has been struggling to direct his staff to complete procedures to change vehicle registration for nearly 100 trucks and container trucks.

According to Circular 58/2020 of the Ministry of Public Security, businesses have completed procedures to change from white to yellow license plates for many transport business vehicles and keep the same number, and continue to use the vehicle registration certificate. The license plate change procedure is quite simple, businesses do not need to bring the vehicle to the vehicle registration office.

However, according to Circular 79/2024 of the Ministry of Public Security, yellow-plate vehicles will have to change their vehicle registration certificates to match the yellow-plate license plate. According to Mr. Le, the business is borrowing money from the bank, using the vehicle registration as collateral, so it cannot withdraw it and bring it to the agency to complete the procedure to change the certificate. "We are very worried that if we do not change the vehicle registration, the inspection centers will refuse to inspect and the vehicle will not be able to operate," said Mr. Le.

According to this business owner, the procedure for changing vehicle registration for vehicles mortgaged at the bank is very complicated. Mortgage contracts, insurance certificates... are all recorded according to the old license plate. Therefore, the procedure for changing these documents according to the new license is quite troublesome for the unit.

Similarly, Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, director of a transport company in Hanoi, said that there were 22 trucks in operation, but before Tet, 12 trucks had to stop to complete procedures for stamping license plates and changing registration papers. The trucks stopped operating, causing orders to backlog, drivers had to quit their jobs, and the company lost tens of millions of dong each day.

Mr. Thanh said that the vehicle registration papers are not always available on the vehicle to be exchanged because the business also uses these papers as collateral for the bank. To withdraw the vehicle registration papers from the bank, the business must complete procedures that take a lot of time. After that, the business must bring the vehicle to the traffic police agency to complete the procedures and wait for processing.

According to the procedure, vehicles with changed registration papers must have their license plates changed, and then the business must re-issue the transport business vehicle badge at the transport department before it can operate. "All these procedures make us have to stop the vehicle for many days, affecting our business and risking losing orders," said Mr. Thanh.

From January 1, 2025, the Law on Road Traffic Safety and its guiding decrees and circulars will take effect. According to Article 39 of the Law on Road Traffic Safety and Article 18 of Circular No. 79/2024 of the Ministry of Public Security, vehicle owners must change their vehicle registration certificates when their white-based license plates change to yellow-based license plates (vehicles operating in the transport business) and vice versa.

In addition, Decree 166/2024 and Circular 47/2024 of the Ministry of Transport stipulate that there is no inspection in case of discrepancy between the vehicle registration certificate and the actual vehicle. Therefore, vehicles that do not change their vehicle registration will not be inspected.

Mr. Tran Duc Nghia, Chairman of the Hanoi Logistics Association, said that since 2020, business units have changed their white license plates to yellow ones to distinguish them as transport vehicles. At that time, the Ministry of Public Security did not require changing vehicle registration papers. Later, when the Law on Road Traffic Safety and Order and new regulations were issued, businesses had to change their vehicle registration papers without applying the roadmap.

Mr. Nghia estimated that when changing the registration, the vehicle must have its chassis and engine numbers re-scraped, so it must stop operating for a few days, causing economic losses of millions of dong for each large truck or container truck. If the change is not made in time, the vehicle will not be inspected, causing business operations to stagnate. Meanwhile, during the Lunar New Year, the demand for passenger, cargo, and travel of people and society is very high.

Nationwide, there are about 1 million transport vehicles that must convert their vehicle registration papers, but many businesses have not yet done so. Mr. Dang Van Chung, Vice President of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association, said that after January 1, 2025, the association has received many complaints from automobile transport businesses about the situation of vehicles having to stop operating, especially long-distance transport vehicles in some large cities such as Hanoi, Hai Phong and Ho Chi Minh City due to the change of vehicle registration papers.

To resolve the issue, the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association recommends that the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Transport direct agencies to research and advise on the direction of applying digital transformation to vehicles that have changed to yellow license plates but have not changed their vehicle registration certificates. The Traffic Police Department updates the data system for inspection and monitoring, and does not require vehicle owners to "change vehicle registration certificates" immediately, or if they do, there must be a roadmap to facilitate people and businesses.

In addition, the association recommends that the Ministry of Transport continue to inspect vehicles that are due for inspection but have not yet changed their vehicle registration certificates.