VietNamNet Bridge - Problems related to people's daily lives, legal loopholes and bad management all will make it difficult to implement the plan to recall old substandard vehicles.

The presence of such vehicles is believed to be the major reason behind the increasingly serious air pollution in urban areas. 

A report of the Vietnam Register (VR) in 2016 showed that the exposure to air pollution of traffic participants, especially motorcyclists, exceeds the permitted level by two to three times, and that 70-90 percent of urban air pollution is caused by traffic operations.

In Hanoi and HCMC, motorbikes account for 95 percent of total vehicles. Though they only consume 56 percent of petrol, they discharge 94 percent of hydrocarbon (HC); 87 percent of carbon monoxide (CO) and 57 percent of nitrogen oxide (NOx) of total emissions from motor vehicles.

Therefore, Hanoi has vowed to eliminate out-of-date vehicles from circulation. However, Bui Danh Lien, chair of the Hanoi Transport Association, warned that the municipal authorities need to anticipate difficulties to arise if implementing the plan. 

In Hanoi and HCMC, motorbikes account for 95 percent of total vehicles. Though they only consume 56 percent of petrol, they discharge 94 percent of hydrocarbon (HC); 87 percent of carbon monoxide (CO) and 57 percent of nitrogen oxide (NOx) of total emissions from motor vehicles.

He said every motorbike in circulation in Vietnam will bear many different taxes and fees, from import tax and environment protection tax, to registration fee and possibly emission fee. 

He has also raised a lot of questions about the plan’s efficiency and feasibility. “The recall of out-of-date vehicles will certainly place difficulties on the poor, for which motorbikes are the only means of transport and means of earning their living. It will be a big problem for the state management agencies to define what ‘expired vehicles’ means,” Lien said.

“How to deal with the expired vehicles after they are recalled will also be a difficult question to solve,” he warned.

Hoang Nam, an office worker in Nam Tu Liem district, said it will be unreasonable to set ‘deadline’ for motorbike use, because the durability of motorbikes will depend on maintenance and use conditions.

“The quality of a motorbike which runs 10 kilometers a day in normal conditions will be different from a motorbike which runs 50 kilometers a day on tough roads,” he said.

As such, the Hanoi authorities will only be able to begin implementing its plan to recall old vehicles after the government issues a regulation on the maximum duration for motorbike use.

Khuat Viet Hung, deputy chair of the National Committee on Traffic Safety, said ‘expired vehicles’ are vehicles which cannot satisfy the requirements to join traffic, not vehicles which have long-time use. 

“Old vehicles will still be allowed on streets if they still can satisfy technical requirements on safety,” he said.

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