HCMC – Although a quarter of the goods in the country have passed through ports in HCMC, the city is facing a serious shortage of parking spaces for container trucks.
Thu Duc City, home to the most ports in HCMC, is facing the highest pressure on parking lots for container trucks. Roads leading to the ports are often congested, news site VnExpress reported.
Hundreds of private parking lots for container trucks have appeared, most of them being temporary.
Drivers of container trucks failing to seek parking lots will have to drive the vehicles around while waiting to enter the ports or park their vehicles on roadways despite the risk of being fined and causing traffic congestion and accidents.
Lam Dai Vinh, director of Lam Vinh Transport Co., Ltd, said the company had more than 40 container trucks and must pay nearly VND100 million per month to hire parking spaces.
These parking lots face a high risk of fires, but the company must accept letting their vehicles be parked there as it is incapable of investing in new parking lots, Vinh added.
There is no parking lot for container trucks at the Cat Lai Port area, while the trucks are not allowed to stop on surrounding roads. Running vehicles around the port will result in a higher fuel cost.
Chairman of the HCMC Goods Transport Association Bui Van Quan said good transport firms in the city had no parking lots for container trucks for many years. Parking lots are mainly located near wholesale markets, industrial parks and seaports, but vehicles are allowed to only transit goods there.
The shortage of parking lots has caused multiple difficulties for enterprises, while they have been hit by the pandemic and the rising fuel prices.
The association has repeatedly proposed the HCMC government direct localities to lease vacant land lots. However, most of the large land lots in the city have been planned for other purposes.
To resolve the issue for the short term, Quan proposed using land lots for projects which have yet to be conducted as parking lots for container trucks and returning them when the projects are kicked off.
Do Ngoc Hai, head of the transport management division under the HCMC Department of Transport, said the lack of available land was the biggest hindrance to developing parking lots for container trucks.
The city has been reviewing sites eligible for the development of parking lots and calling for an investment of VND2.5 trillion in a 37-hectare parking lot in Thu Duc City. Some other parking lots in Binh Chanh and Cu Chi districts will be developed in the coming time to meet the demands of enterprises.
