According to the draft Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety, motorcycle driving licenses made of cardboard issued before July 1, 2012, must be converted to plastic (PET) cards. The Vietnam Road Administration said that there are currently about 22 million unlimited motorcycle driving licenses (A1, A2, and A3 types) made of cardboard issued from 1995 to July 2012 throughout the country.
According to Mr. Luong Duyen Thong, Head of the Driver and Vehicle Management Department, motorcycle driving licenses made of cardboard lack personal information such as date of birth and citizen identification number, so they cannot be integrated into the management system of the Vietnam Road Administration as well as the national database on population and electronic identification accounts (VNeID). Therefore, the Ministry of Transport has proposed to the Ministry of Public Security to add this provision to the draft Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety.
Mr. Thong also stated that the Government will be responsible for establishing a roadmap and fee rates for the conversion. Currently, individuals who convert their motorcycle driving licenses do not need to undergo a health check or provide the old license documents, and the conversion fee is 135,000 VND.
According to Colonel Nguyen Quang Nhat, Head of the Propaganda Department, Traffic Police Department, the PET-formatted driving licenses will be updated on the system of the Vietnam Road Administration, and then integrated into the VNeID application.
Currently, PET driving licenses have been integrated into VNeID to connect with the national database on population. In the future, relevant authorities will control documents related to individuals and vehicles through VNeID.
Currently, the transportation sector manages 55.6 million driving licenses for both cars and motorcycles. According to the Vietnam Road Administration, there are approximately 23.6 million car and motorcycle driving licenses that have not been integrated into VNeID due to data inconsistency with the population.
In the draft Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety, the Ministry of Public Security proposes that the Government stipulate the categories and expiration dates of driving licenses. The Minister of Transport will regulate the form of driving licenses and international driving licenses, as well as the procedures for issuing and using these types of licenses.
Colonel Nhat stated that Vietnam currently uses driving licenses that are not in accordance with the Vienna Convention. The convention stipulates that category A is for motorcycles and category B is for cars. However, Vietnam divides driving licenses into categories A1, A2, B1, and B2. Therefore, the Traffic Police Department has adopted changes to align with international regulations in order for Vietnam to become a member of these conventions.
