Do Chi Chung, the company’s chief of office,said about 1.8 million vehicles were weighed in the first nine monthsof this year.
Of the figure, 31,000 vehicles were overloadedwith goods or passengers, and 136 vehicles were found to have parkedillegally, disobeyed police officers or driven the wrong way downhighways.
Chung said the number of violations had fallenby 12 percent compared to the same period of last year, showing efforts to stopoverloaded trucks were working.
Overloaded trucks are the main cause of trafficaccidents and damage to road surfaces and other transport infrastructure.
Over the past few years, the Government hasinstructed ministries and sectors to reinforce supervision of overloadedvehicles nationwide. Automatic weighbridges have been installed at tollstations to stop vehicles from exceeding the load or number of passengers theyare permitted to carry.
Chung said vehicles exceeding 10 percent oftheir transport capacity or more will be refused entry to highways. The companyhas also contacted local police to issue fines as regulated to those vehicles.
He said the company would continue to controltruckloads around-the-clock to ensure safety and protect trafficinfrastructure.
Since early this year, 30.5million vehicles had used highways under the VEC’s management.
The Cau Gie-Ninh Binh Highway in the northwas the busiest with 11.4 million vehicles, followed by Ho Chi Minh City-LongThanh-Dau Giay with 11 million.
On the Noi Bai-Lao Cai Highway, about 7.4 millionvehicles were reported to have used the route. As the longest highwayroute of the country, the number of vehicles weighed before using the highwayaccounted for 77 percent of the total inspected by the company.
The VEC is the investor of the Cau Gie-Ninh Binh,Noi Bai-Lao Cai, Da Nang-Quang Ngai and Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giayhighways with a total length of nearly 500 kilometres.
The Ben Luc-Long Thanh highway is underconstruction and is expected to be completed by 2020, raising the total routesunder the company’s management to 550 kilometres, accounting for 65 percent ofhighways in the country.-VNS/VNA