Joint Circular No. 36-TT/LB guiding the implementation of Directive No. 138-TTg dated August 15, 1970 of the Prime Minister on strictly prohibiting the illegal transportation using automobiles.

JOINT CIRCULAR

Guidelines for Implementing Directive No. 138-TTg dated August 15, 1970 of the Prime Minister on Strictly Prohibiting the Illicit Use of Motor Vehicles for Transportation

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On August 5, 1970, the Prime Minister issued Directive No. 138-TTg on strictly prohibiting the illicit use of motor vehicles for transportation. In Article 4 of the directive, the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance to provide specific guidelines to strictly implement the State's decisions and terminate the current illicit use of motor vehicles for transportation.

Based on the above provisions, the Joint Ministries issue this circular to specify and guide certain points for implementation as follows.

I. PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES FOR THE USE OF MOTOR VEHICLES FOR TRANSPORTATION BY THE STATE FOR ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS

In the aforementioned directive, the Prime Minister stipulated:

"Strictly prohibit the illegal use of motor vehicles for transportation for private interests that do not comply with regulations and tasks assigned by the State. Those who violate will be disciplined severely and must compensate all costs to the public treasury...

...Organizations and individuals requiring transportation must hire motor vehicles from specialized transport agencies for cargo or passenger transport, and may not arbitrarily use motor vehicles for transportation owned by the State...

...In cases where there are truly necessary and justifiable matters that transport agencies cannot handle, permission must be sought from the unit’s head and all costs must be settled to the public treasury according to State regulations..."

To implement these provisions, from now on, organizations such as trade unions, youth associations, cultural performance teams, football teams, etc., and individual cadres, workers, and employees who have needs for cargo or passenger transport, shall in principle contact public transport enterprises to lease transportation means in accordance with current transport regulations. Public motor vehicle transport enterprises have the responsibility to ensure the completion of the State's transportation plans while also fully meeting the legitimate transportation needs of organizations and individual cadres, workers, and employees. Only when public transport enterprises cannot undertake the task and it is confirmed by the traffic transport authority can the use of motor vehicles from their own units be requested. Organizations, enterprises, construction sites, schools, etc., may only allow organizations and individual cadres, workers, and employees to use motor vehicles from their units through leasing arrangements under the following conditions:

1. The transportation is truly necessary and justifiable, for example: families of cadres, workers, and employees affected by storms, floods, or fires request the use of vehicles to transport materials and repair houses; trade unions request the use of vehicles to transport increased production products for distribution to cadres, workers, and employees; cultural performance teams request the use of vehicles to transport performance equipment, etc. It is not allowed to lease vehicles to transport goods or materials prohibited or not encouraged by the State.

2Organizations or individuals must submit a request to use the vehicle of the unit. The unit must obtain confirmation from the traffic transport authority (clearly stating name, position, signature, and stamp) that the public transport enterprise does not have the capacity to transport (cargo transported across provinces on more than five designated public roads as specified in Circular No. 49-TT dated October 29, 1970 of the Ministry of Transport, confirmed by central motor vehicle transport enterprises or road transport stations of the Road Transport Department located in provinces and key areas. Cargo transported across provinces on other routes outside the five designated routes mentioned above and within the province, and passengers transported within or across provinces are confirmed by local traffic transport departments).

3Approval from the head of the organization or unit is required, and the lease request form must be signed off (at organizations, enterprises, construction sites, schools, etc., by directors or deputy directors, department heads or deputy department heads, principals or vice-principals, chairpersons or vice-chairpersons; at administrative committees, central ministries, and central mass organizations, by office chiefs or deputy chiefs).

4Organizations or individuals leasing vehicles must have complete legal documents regarding the cargo being transported, must sign a transportation contract, and pay freight charges in accordance with current transport regulations.

The vehicle owner entity must ensure that the vehicle has all valid documents when operating in accordance with current regulations (ownership certificate; vehicle operation permit; permit to use cargo vehicles to carry passengers if the leased cargo vehicle is used to carry passengers, etc.).

5When deciding to allow organizations or individual cadres, workers, and employees to use motor vehicles from the unit, in addition to ensuring the conditions stipulated above, the entity owning the vehicle must fully utilize the vehicle for two-way cargo transportation and make full use of the vehicle's load capacity to avoid waste. If the entity owning the vehicle cannot arrange two-way cargo transportation, they must contact the local traffic transport department or central public motor vehicle transport enterprises to seek combined two-way cargo transportation. If combined two-way cargo transportation cannot be arranged even after contacting the traffic transport authority, confirmation from the local traffic transport department or the central motor vehicle transport enterprise responsible for the route must be included in the vehicle usage contract.

6Generally, motor vehicles for cargo transportation of organizations, enterprises, construction sites, etc., shall not be leased for passenger transportation, except in truly necessary cases which must comply with the provisions of this circular and ensure safety conditions as stipulated in Circular No. 19-GT/CA dated February 7, 1963 of the Joint Ministries of Transport and Public Security regarding the use of cargo vehicles for passenger transportation.

In cases where construction sites have a regular daily need to transport workers for production, if the local Department or Office of Transportation has confirmed that there are no conditions to lease vehicles or purchase monthly tickets from passenger transportation enterprises, and such action has been approved by the superior management authority, then the unit's cargo transport vehicles may be used to transport workers for production purposes, but must obtain permission from the public security agency to use cargo trucks to carry people. In this case, units shall not exclusively use cargo transport vehicles for transporting people, but must plan so that after the vehicle transports workers to the production site each day, it continues to perform cargo transport tasks.

II. PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES FOR PAYING FREIGHT CHARGES IN CASES OF LEASING VEHICLES FROM ORGANIZATIONS AND ENTERPRISES

Based on the regulations for transporting goods by automobile and the current financial management principles of the Government, the relevant ministries guide certain points regarding the payment of freight charges in cases where groups or individuals lease automobiles from state organizations and enterprises as follows:

1. Public passenger automobile transportation enterprises, when leasing vehicles to groups or individuals, must complete all procedures related to transportation documents (transport contracts, cargo transportation certificates, etc.) and freight charge payments according to the current transportation regulations.

2. For organizations and units (not specialized in transportation business) when leasing automobiles to groups and individual staff members within the unit, the accounting finance department or other departments assigned responsibility by the head of the unit must thoroughly check the principles and procedures for leasing vehicles (such as: lease application forms with confirmation from the transportation department and approval signature from the head of the organization, transport contracts), while immediately collecting the transportation freight charges as stipulated in the contract. After collecting the money, the chief accountant signs confirmation on the contract before dispatching the vehicle for transportation.

The prepaid freight amount above will be recorded in the accounting ledger as provisional receipts. At the latest, within three days from the completion date of the transportation contract, formal settlement must be made, with any shortage collected and any excess refunded to the lessee, and the collected freight immediately deposited into the budget.

3The freight rate for transporting goods or passengers by automobile is the rate specified in the current freight tariff regulations.

Specifically, for the case of leasing cargo transport vehicles to transport workers for daily work, the fare will be based on the bus or coach fare currently applied locally for monthly ticket purchases, serving as the basis for calculating the freight charge and must be clearly stated in the contract.

4. Upon completion of transportation, the transport contract signed by the lessee confirming the completion of transportation must be returned to the unit's accounting department for recalculation of the freight charge and formal settlement (these documents will be kept attached to the accounting vouchers and lease application form).

5. The total freight revenue from the cases of organizations and units that are not public passenger transportation enterprises will be recorded and settled as follows:

- Economic accounting units or service units using income to offset expenses, record the increase in profit or reduction in loss in the accounting ledger.

- Administrative service units funded by the budget for expenditures, must deposit into the budget (units funded by the central government budget deposit into the central budget, those funded by the local government budget deposit into the local budget).

To ensure strict management and use of state-owned automobile transport vehicles in accordance with the Prime Minister's Directive No. 138-TTg mentioned above, the relevant ministries request all ministries, agencies at the level of ministries, organs under the Council of Ministers, and central mass organizations to widely disseminate this circular to subordinate units for implementation.

Units and individuals who fail to comply with the provisions in the Prime Minister's Directive No. 138-TTg dated August 15, 1970, and this circular will be strictly disciplined and must compensate for all costs incurred for the public treasury, and if causing significant damage to the State, they may be prosecuted according to the Socialist Property Protection Decree published by the President's Order No. 149-LCT dated October 23, 1970.

This circular does not apply to vehicles of the Military, People's Armed Police, and special coaches purchased by enterprises from welfare funds for the benefit of the collective and employees within the enterprise.