LookAtVietnam – While most of the owners of modified three- and-four-wheel motor vehicles are still ill prepared to switch their occupation, . . .

A man earns his living with his three-wheeled motorcycle in HCM City.

Hundreds of Tung’s colleagues in the market shared similar concerns.

The ban, which classifies the vehicles into two kinds – registered and unregistered, allows registered three-wheeled motorised vehicles to ply streets. Meanwhile the unregistered are off-limits by the authorities, municipal streets, streets around the airport and the East-West Highway.

The ban on unregistered vehicles is total.

But even registered vehicle owners are unhappy with the times they are allowed to be on the streets – from 1pm to 4pm and 10pm to 5am. They say these hours are not sufficient to help them make a living.

“I have only three hours in the afternoon to do business and no one will use my services during sleeping hours at night,” said Nguyen Van Meo, a resident of Tan Binh District in HCM City.

The city administration has a scheme to provide incentives for owners of unregistered tricycles to give up their banned vehicles to district authorities.

They are to be given VND5-7 million (US$256-358) per surrendered vehicle to help them switch to other occupations, but many districts have yet to gather statistics on the number of such vehicles in their localities.

For those who want to continue providing transport services using small road legal vans, the city has decided to give a grant of VND9 million ($460). “We have received applications from half the people in the district who need financial support to stop using the [motorised] vehicle,” said Tran Thi Kim, deputy manager of Thu Duc District’s Urban Management Division.

“The number of people estimated to earn their livelihoods using these vehicles is 1,000.

“But since most of them are migrants, it has been difficult to gather information and take measures to support them.”

The owners of most of the city’s 14,685 modified vehicles earn their living by providing transportation or rubbish collecting services.

The districts would not be able to assist some of the owners since they had not lived in the city for at least six months as required by the scheme, Kim said. “That’s the reason many don’t want to turn in their vehicles.”

Phu Nhuan District has 460 modified vehicles, according to Nguyen Thi Hong Tham, deputy head of the district Planning and Finance Division. “We will lend VND7 million each for job training to 102 owners who are listed as poor.” The other 358 will get VND5 million each.

The district is also assisting rubbish collectors to replace their vehicles with push carts. “But we do not know how many people work as rubbish collectors since many come from other districts.”

The District 9 Labour, Social Affairs and War Invalids Division admitted it had not been able to find out how many modified vehicles are owned by its residents and was not quite sure how to persuade their owners to stop using them.

“We are encouraging them to stop using their vehicles and come to the district’s Social Policy Bank to get soft loans (of up to VND30 million) to set up new businesses,” said Nguyen Thi Anh Hong, deputy chairwoman of the district People’s Committee.

She did not say how many had taken up the offer so far.

The ban of these vehicles will take effect in HCM City on January 1.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News