Online licensing for oversized and overweight vehicles: Businesses can breathe a “sigh of relief”

Spend the whole month to get the licenses

Dasuka Logistics Limited Company is a business specializing in logistics services. The projects received by the company require importing large goods and machines,such as compressors from South Korea, China, etc. through HaiPhong Port or exporting completed machines, such as transformers to EU market, etc. Talking to the reporter of Customs News, Mr. Nguyen Van Huan, an employee of the company said: Because of the lack of vehicles, the company often hires a transport company whenever it is required. However, when using oversized and overweight vehicles, the company often actively works with the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam (the Ministry of Transportation) to be permitted to circulate. Currently, paper records are being used, so each time, the company must appoint an employee to bring the records from its head office in BacNinh to Ha Noi to submit and when the company needs to receive the licenses, the procedures are the same. On average, if there is no error in the record, the time from the submission until the company gets the permit is about 7 to 10 days. If the record has any problem which needs to be fixed and added, the time may be extended to half a month or longer, depend on the case. The paper records have wasted much time and effort of the company.

Relating to this issue, according to the representative of Dai Viet Logistics Transportation Limited Company (HaiPhong): The procedure for permission to circulate oversized and overweight vehicles is not simple. The licensing authorities often require companies to submit plans for transport, road and bridge load testing, or hire consultants to perform the calculation of assessments, and then decide whether or not to issue a license to companies. Meanwhile, companies do not have a record on the roads and bridgeson the route, soit would take some time and cost for searching and checking the road and bridge system. The time of waiting for theassessments of the management agencies is also quite long makingthe time to get the licenses up to a month.

Loss of hundreds of million VND

In addition to being time-consuming, licensing under paper recordsmay cause the companies having transported goods, to lose a large amount of money due to the need of storing goods at the port. Mr. Huan said: For normal goods, when docking, the goods can be stored at the port in a certain period without being charged. However, the projects received by the company are often over-loaded goods, so as soon as the goods are unloaded, the port will start charging the container storage fee. There are cases where, due to the malfunctions or delays in the process of submitting for permission to circulate oversized and overweight vehicles, goods are unloaded at the port, but can not be transported right away, the company must spend several hundreds of million VND for container storage fee. The company suffers a loss, the logistics service company’s activity and prestige is also affected.

According to a representative of the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam: It is expected that when applying the pilot online licensing project, oversized and overweight transportation companies who want to be permitted only need to register via the Internet by sending the records to the licensing authorities, receiving an appointment confirmation notification and finally going to the licensing authorities to complete the procedure and receive the licenses. The records will be resolved quickly. The companies can save the time to go to the authorities many times to submit the records. If the records have any problem, it will be also simpler for businesses. However, online licensing will not completely replace the traditional licensing. Businesses can actively choose the most suitable way.

Commenting on this move, most related companies are quite excited. According to Mr. Huan, because his head office is in BacNinh, if the company submits the licenses via the Internet, the company can save its time and people going back and forth between Ha Noi and BacNinh. The company also expects the licensing via the Internet to shorten the overall time to get the licenses, create more favorable conditions for businesses, especially avoiding the situation that goods arrive in port without a license, where more costs arise.

In spite of supporting and placing much hope, most companies also expressed the concern, during the early deployment, malfunctions and problems will be inevitable. Therefore, most companies petition that before the pilot, the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam should guide and train meticulously for businesses, and at the same time,associate with the business community to remove obstacles during the deployment. In particular, some companies also recommended, if possible, the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam should maintain a"hotline" number to support businesses when it is necessary in the process of implementing new procedures.