The Vietnam Automobile Transportation Association has proposed a one-year extension to the deadline for black box data recorders to be installed in coaches and containers.

Under Government Decree 91, coaches, containers and tour buses must carry the recorders from the beginning of July this year.

The black box records the vehicle's speed, when its doors open and its route. The technical data it provides helps police understand the causes of traffic accidents with information about speeds and braking.

"A set of standards for the boxes themselves has yet to be approved so transport enterprises are worried they will not be able to install the boxes on time," said Nguyen Manh Hung, chairman of the association.

The association had asked the Ministry of Transport to extend the installation deadline for a year so that transport enterprises would have more time to prepare and a suitable set of standards could be drawn up and agreed, he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Transport Le Manh Hung said the ministry would not extend the deadline in a move to encourage domestic black box producers to compete with each other.

However to help transport enterprises, the ministry would not penalise those that failed to install the equipment in time for a further six months or one year.

The country had about 400,000 coaches and containers, but only 10 percent of them were equipped with a black box, according to statistics from the Vietnam Automobile Transportation Association./.