Highways across Vietnam have become ‘paralyzed’ at night as drivers have begun to drive only in the dark this month.

Mobile weighbridge stations have been deployed across Vietnam to help curb the increase of overloaded trucks, but this has only caused drivers of the vehicles to avoid driving during the day.

In regulation, mobile weighbridges have been mobilized in all provinces and cities in the nation to go on watch 24 hours a day since April 1. 

But in reality, most of the stations are open during the day and decrease their hours at night due to a shortage of staff.

This has created a loophole for rule breakers, and thus led to unfair competition among truck drivers since violators with overloaded cargo can offer cheaper transport costs to customers in proportion to the excessive loads they carry.

Inconsistency encourages violations

On April 3, a series of heavy trucks parked on the roadside of National Highway 1 between Quang Nam Province and Da Nang City in the central region to ‘dodge’ a mobile weighbridge in Hoa Chau Commune in Hoa Vang District.

Upon hearing of the weighbridge ahead, overloaded truck drivers parked to rest at fuel stations, restaurants, and cafeterias until night fell.

Huynh Van Trieu, a truck driver traveling from the southern province of Dong Nai to the north, said, “My truck is overloaded now. I am sure I will be fined if I cross the weighbridge, so I will stop here to wait.”

“It doesn’t make sense to cross the weighbridge since my profits aren’t enough to cover the fine,” he admitted.

Avoidance of these weighbridges has caused many trucks to crowd on the side of the roads by day.

Nguyen Hong Nam, deputy chief of the inspection unit under the Transport Department in the central city of Da Nang, told Tuoi Tre that only four trucks crossed his weighbridge in an hour on April 3, none of which were overloaded.

“Drivers know their vehicles are not overloaded and so they go cross it. Otherwise, they avoid it,” Nam said.

A similar situation has occurred at weighbridge No.10 on National Highway 20 in Da Mri Town in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong over the past few days.

Le Van Truong, vice chief of weighbridge No.10, said most trucks running in the area carried loads 30 – 40 percent higher than the allowed limit, but admitted, “It’s difficult to punish them because they only cross the weighbridge when we aren’t working.”

Drivers only receive a warning and are allowed to go if its overload does not exceed 10 percent of the gross weight of the vehicle, according to Truong.

However, if he exceeds the 10 percent rate, a driver’s driving license is revoked for one to two months and he receives a pecuniary penalty depending on the overload amount. On average, an overloaded truck is fined VND6-8 million (US$288 – 384).

Trucks carrying 30 percent more than the allowed amount must remove their extra cargo at the site before being allowed to cross the weighbridge.

At a weighbridge in the central province of Nghe An, 59 out of 63 trucks weighed in the first two days on April 1-2 were overloaded, said Phan Huy Chuong, deputy chief of an inspection unit under the provincial Transport Department.

Chuong added that he has 12 staff working the weighbridge in two shifts from 6:00 – 12:00 and 12:00 – 18:00. The shift from 18:00 till 6:00 is left open.

Reactions from drivers

At 14:00 on April 3, a convoy of 15 heavy trucks stopped at mobile weighbridge No.15 in Dien An Commune, Dien Chau District in Nghe An.

Each truck carried a banner installed on the front bumper that read in Vietnamese, “I warmly welcome the campaign to stop overloaded trucks.”

A delegate of the convoy met the weighbridge chief and suggested responsible staff to “consistently carry out the job in all 63 provinces and consistently work 24/7.”

Within two days of the weighbridges going into operation, 70 percent of transport enterprises in Nghe An closed their offices because they “earned no profits without carrying overloads,” according to Chuong.

If all overloaded trucks are fined, transport enterprises will surely offer a higher price to clients, instead of unequally competing to one another by carrying overload, a driver said.

Sharing the viewpoint with drivers, transport authorities agreed to deploy weighbridges to work permanently during day and night.

Nguyen Duc Thang, acting chief of the Vietnam Road Administration under the Ministry of Transport, said 36 of 63 provinces had mobile weighbridges on their highways and 17 of the 36 provinces have weighbridges working 24/7.

In the future, they will work permanently day and night, Thang assured.

From April 1-3, 1,952 trucks were checked and 437 of them, accounting for 22.3 percent, were overloaded, statistics show.

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