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| The pilot GrabCar project is expected to enhance the state management of information technology-based passenger transportation. — VNS Photo Thu Giang |
HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved the Transport Ministry's pilot project on "Application of information technology in supporting the management and connection of commercial passenger transportation by contract" (GrabCar).
The project aims to help enhance the state management of information technology-based passenger transportation, as well as create high-standard pre-conditions for future science and technology application projects in the transportation sector.
With the pilot receiving approval, GrabTaxi Co. Ltd. becomes the first business to be allowed to apply connection services to contract-based passenger cars with fewer than nine seats in Viet Nam.
The GrabCar pilot project will be applied to contract-based automobile transportation entities that have legitimate business licences in five cities and provinces including Ha Noi, HCM City, central Da Nang City, northern Quang Ninh Province and southern Khanh Hoa Province for a two-year period.
According to the details of the pilot, GrabTaxi Co. Ltd. will regularly report the list of transportation entities and vehicles using GrabTaxi's connection app, which helps the authorities manage tax payments and other regulatory responsibilities to passengers and GrabTaxi partner entities.
The GrabCar Pilot project has the potential to significantly enhance traffic order and safety by reducing the number of personal vehicles on the road and thus mitigating traffic congestion. The GrabCar Pilot project also helps facilitate more effective management of tax collection through GrabTaxi's direct payment system between passengers and domestic transportation service provider entities.
The GrabCar Pilot project is revolutionary in that it helps to further modernise the state's management of passenger transportation by establishing the validity of e-contracts as substitutes or equivalents of traditional written contracts. Accordingly, e-contract based cars have installed route monitoring devices and have "contract-car" badges in accordance with the provisions of Decree 86/2014/ND-CP and Circular 63/2014/TT-BGTVT.
Furthermore, the GrabCar Pilot project has the potential to reduce the costs associated with traditional administration work and will, as a result, produce lower fares for consumers. It will encourage healthy competition among passenger transportation service providers in Viet Nam and inspire other domestic transport businesses to develop their own GrabTaxi-style connecting apps.
LiveTaxi, TaxiNavi, Ahamove and Vinasun have already moved to replicate GrabTaxi's success by creating proprietary e-contract apps.
Established in Malaysia in 2011 with the name MyTeksi, GrabTaxi headquarters is based in Singapore and has been operating in 26 cities in six ASEAN countries. In Viet Nam, the service has been offered in HCM City since February 2014, in Ha Noi since May 2014 and in Da Nang since June 2015. — VNS