The Ministry of Transport has again proposed that the Government classify ride-hailing companies, such as Grab, as taxi operators, as it seeks to replace Government’s Decree 86/2014 on business conditions for auto transport services.

A man rides past a Grab car in HCMC. The Transport Ministry expects ride-hailing companies, such as Grab, to be treated as taxi operators 

Deputy Minister of Transport Le Dinh Tho said in a recent report to Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung that the ministry has already gathered opinions to manage vehicles with under nine seats transporting passengers through electronic contracts. As a result, the ministry has come up with two plans.

In the first plan, the transport ministry regards such vehicles as contract-based vehicles, which is favored by many Cabinet members and other ministries and agencies.

With this scheme, the ministry plans to introduce a number of stringent regulations for passenger transport vehicles with under nine seats.

For example, operators of such vehicles will be obliged to report details about their contracts before their trips and must have devices displaying the contents of their contracts.

Further, their software interface must be available so that customers can choose and negotiate their itineraries, times and values of contracts.

These regulations are expected to be aligned with the laws on e-transactions and road traffic.

Meanwhile, the second option refers to such vehicles as taxis. This option has received support from the Ministry of Public Security and taxi associations, but has not found favor with other agencies.

The transport ministry reports that this mode of classification is consistent with the regulations of management, because it is integrated into a category with traditional taxis and is in line with the proposals of taxi associations.

However, the issue is that the 2008 Law on Road Traffic regulates passenger transport businesses under contracts, including cars with under nine seats, so the regulation classifying them as taxis is not suitable.

SGT