The ministry in April said overloaded trucks were a major cause of traffic accidents and road damage.

The policy appears to have been successful, as the number of traffic accidents since April has decreased and the transport sector seems to be more competitive, especially the truck market.

According to independent market watchdogs, the tightened controls on overloaded trucks have caused a slower flow of goods, particularly at local ports.

An official of the transport ministry said as many as 60% of container trucks owned by local firms are no longer eligible to carry containers, under the new policy.
 

Most of the owners of the trucks have initially registered their vehicles to carry far less weight than the actual load of their containers.

With such a change, transport firms have had to buy or arrange to use other trucks suitable for their goods.

Huynh Trung Thanh, director of a transport cooperative in Thu Duc District, said "We have had to lower the load of many vehicles to avoid being punished, so our carrying capacity fell by half. To meet our regular customers' demand, we are going to buy between five and 10 container trucks."

Dinh Nam Dinh, chairman of the HCM City Cargo Transportation Association, also said that many local transport companies will have to purchase more vehicles if they want to keep their customers.

Some companies will even have to double their number of vehicles to maintain their carrying capacity. The vehicles that they want to buy now will be those with high carrying capacity such as container trucks, heavy-duty trucks and medium-duty trucks, Dinh said.