Starting from 15 March and 1 April, the new parking charges on Bach Dang and Tran Phu streets in Da Nang respectively come into effect.

A lot of cars being parked on Le Hong Phong

However, after the first 4 months of the pilot implementation, relevant local agencies have faced some difficulties arising during the work.

In particular, a total of 24 employees who are divided into 6 groups are responsible for collecting the parking fees. Apart from the collection work, they are very busy conducting patrols, monitoring, dealing with urban order violations, and stopping wandering vendors.

Meanwhile, many drivers have avoided paying the parking fees by parking their cars on nearby streets, which has caused traffic congestion in these areas.

Ms Le Thi Bon residing on Le Hong Phong complained that local residents’ walkways and trading space on the street have been blocked since too many cars were parked on the street instead of Bach Dang or Tran Phu to avoid paying the parking fees.

Mrs Mai Thi Mot added that recent months have seen an increasing number of cars parked on Thai Phien, resulting in a lot of traffic problems on this street.

Driver Nguyen Van Quang from the city branch of the Ben Thanh Tourist Travel Agency underlined that the installation of a ‘Smart Parking’ mobile application, as well as the registration for parking and the payment for parking fees through this app, are very complicated.

Mr Nguyen Van Sanh, Deputy Head of the Culture and Information Office in Hai Chau District, remarked the parking fees can be paid through the ‘Smart Parking’ mobile application through prepaid cards.  The prepaid cards are issued by fee collectors or can be bought at a ticket counter on Bach Dang, opposite the Da Nang branch of VTV. In addition, the fees can be paid into an online account at www.nganluong.vn through debit and credit cards of Visa/ MasterCard, and any ATM card issued by Vietnamese banks.

Deputy Head Sanh added that, initially, there were some shortcomings in applying information technology into the collection of parking fees. However, the rate of fee payers has been significantly increased from 30% to over 51% after the problem was handled by the Sao Moi Company.

Meanwhile, Hai Chau District’s urban order management team have found it very difficult to meet with those who did not pay parking fees.

According to the latest statistics, to date, the city has collected over 408 million VND in parking fees from a total of 11,353 cars, whilst a total of 10,572 cars have yet to pay parking fees in accordance with the city’s regulations.

Mr Nguyen Huu Cuong, Chief of the city’s Traffic Safety Board Secretariat, pointed out some shortcomings in the pilot implementation of the parking fee collection. For example, instructions for installing the mobile application, and for registering for parking, are wordy and confusing.

He, therefore, stressed the need for relevant agencies to remind violators about the city’s parking rules, as well as raise public awareness about the city’s policy in order to create the highest level of consensus between the city leaders and local residents.