The Vietnamese city’s Transport Department says the GPS devices will log routes taken in addition to the speeds and times for each journey. The devices will also keep a record of the total hours worked by each driver. Taxi companies will be required to transmit live feeds of the data to the department.
The department says drivers will face fines of between US$90 and US$140 if they are caught driving taxis without meters fitted to them. The issue of making tracking devices compulsory in Ho Chi Minh’s taxis was first discussed in 2013 and followed a sharp rise in the number of complaints about malpractice by drivers.
The complaints ranged from overcharging to drivers refusing to take passengers on short trips. A Transport Department spokesperson stated that more than 500 drivers were fined for refusing to take passengers on short journeys from the city’s Tan Son Nhat Airport last year.
Ho Chi Minh to fit taxis with GPS trackers
News in Asia
Municipal authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have enacted a new regulation that requires all taxis to be fitted with GPS tracking devices. The edict is effective from 1 July 2015 and any driver found driving a taxi after this date without the modern equivalent of a tachograph faces a heavy fine.