In November 2024, a 30-year-old driver suddenly showed symptoms of a mouth injury while driving. He was discovered by his colleagues and immediately taken to Xuyen A General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City for emergency care.
Fortunately, still in the "golden hour" of treatment, he was prescribed by the doctor to use medicine to dissolve the blood clot that caused blood vessel blockage. The young man recovered after a day of treatment.
Another case was a 43-year-old bus driver in Ho Chi Minh City, who suddenly had a seizure and fainted while waiting for a red light. Although he was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment immediately, he did not survive.
These are just 2 of many cases with health problems when having to drive for many hours in a row. Therefore, the health of drivers when driving is of further concern, especially for drivers in the transport business.
The Law on Road Traffic Safety and Order 2024, effective from January 1, 2025, stipulates: The driving time of car drivers shall not exceed 10 hours in a day and shall not exceed 48 hours in a week; continuous driving shall not exceed 4 hours and shall ensure relevant regulations of the Labor Code.
Thus, the new law has added one week's working time for drivers of internal transport and transport business.
Talking to Lao Dong, Mr. Khuong Kim Tao - former Deputy Chief of Office of the National Traffic Safety Committee - shared: The regulation on limiting working hours for drivers has been applied in many advanced countries, bringing clear results.
In Vietnam, too, drivers must have adequate rest and there is a unit responsible for supervising this issue, said Mr. Tao.
According to Mr. Khuong Kim Tao, to effectively implement the regulation on limiting driving time, many solutions are needed such as: Strengthening propaganda and education for drivers and vehicle owners about awareness of law compliance; applying technology in monitoring working hours; building a strict internal management system to ensure that drivers are not forced to work over the permitted time.
At the same time, Mr. Tao emphasized the need for more strict handling measures for violations, and it is necessary to consider criminal liability.
The Traffic Police Department (Ministry of Public Security) said that from January 1, 2025, the Traffic Police force (CSGT) is assigned the task of managing, operating, and using the data management system of journey monitoring devices and driver image recording devices.
According to the Traffic Police Department, the above content is based on the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety (TTATGT), Decree 151/2024 of the Government, Circular 71/2024 of the Ministry of Public Security.
According to regulations, journey monitoring devices are installed on transport business cars, tractor-trailers, ambulances, and road traffic rescue vehicles. Vehicles carrying people with 8 seats or more for transportation business (excluding the driver's seat), tractors, ambulances, and road traffic rescue vehicles must install equipment to record the driver's image.
"The above is to serve the work of ensuring security, road traffic safety and handling violations, state management of road transport", said the Traffic Police Department.
The data will also be connected and shared with the Ministry of Transport (Vietnam Road Administration), the Department of Transport of provinces and centrally run cities and relevant agencies according to the provisions of law.
Traffic police units are allowed to exploit data from journey monitoring devices, driver image recording devices, and road traffic safety databases to control, detect, and handle violations of road traffic safety laws, including violations such as driving continuously for more than 4 hours.
