All the 100 automobile registration centres throughout the country will be inspected, following a proposal issued during a recent meeting at the Transport Ministry.

Speaking at the meeting last week, Minister Dinh La Thang ordered the ministry's inspectors to tighten inspections of the centers in a bid to deal with overloaded trucks, as well as poor management at the centres.

Regular inspections also need to be conducted at vehicle weigh stations on national roads to prevent the stations' staff from violating State regulations on management, he added.

Among measures to tighten control on overloaded trucks, Thang suggested that vehicle bodies with capacities exceeding the limited levels must be repaired. In this case, vehicle owners should be given financial support by the State.

According to Ministry Chief Inspector Nguyen Van Huyen, inspections conducted at 10 registration centres last year revealed many problems in management.

He said that different registration centres granted the same truck licences to carry goods with different load capacities. For example, a truck could be allowed to transport goods of up to 30 tonnes, 40 tonnes or 60 tonnes, depending on the registration centre's granting of licences, added Huyen.

In other cases, many trucks were found to have bodies exceeding the permitted height, but they were still allowed to operate on the roads, he said.

Meanwhile, General Director of the Vietnam Register Tran Ky Hinh said truck owners used many tricks to avoid being punished, including the repair of vehicle bodies to increase their load-carrying capacities, after being inspected at registration centres.

Hinh suggested classifying trucks and requiring vehicle owners to repair oversized truck bodies to assure their loading capacities complied with State regulations.-VNA