Overloading is the costliest compliance risk in Vietnamese road transport, because a single overloaded trip is sanctioned on three subjects at once: the driver, the vehicle owner and the transport business unit, on different fine scales by excess ratio. Decree 168/2024/ND-CP, effective 1 January 2025 replacing Decree 100/2019/ND-CP, tightened the bridge and road overload group markedly. This article presents the current scales in Article 21 for drivers and Article 32 for vehicle owners, clarifies who is fined, the license point mechanism replacing suspension, and how an enterprise controls loads at the source.
Legal Basis
The penalty framework for load violations sits in Decree 168/2024/ND-CP on administrative sanctions for road traffic order and safety violations, effective 1 January 2025. Article 21 sanctions drivers of cargo automobiles for: hauling cargo beyond the permitted weight recorded in the vehicle’s inspection certificate, hauling beyond the permitted load of bridges and roads, and hauling beyond dimensional limits. Article 32 sanctions vehicle owners who hand vehicles over to, or let employees and representatives perform, those acts. The driving license regime under the Road Traffic Order and Safety Law 2024 moved from fixed-term suspension to point deduction: each license carries 12 points, violations deduct points as prescribed, and a driver who exhausts points must pass a test to restore them.
Driver Fine Bands by Excess Over Inspected Capacity
For hauling beyond the permitted weight in the inspection certificate, Article 21 of Decree 168/2024/ND-CP bands fines by the excess ratio over permitted weight: over 10% to 30% is fined VND 800,000 to 1,000,000; over 30% to 50%, VND 3,000,000 to 5,000,000; over 50% to 100%, VND 5,000,000 to 7,000,000; over 100% to 150%, VND 7,000,000 to 8,000,000; and over 150%, VND 8,000,000 to 12,000,000. In addition, the driver loses 2 to 10 license points by violation level and must unload the excess cargo onto another vehicle or a designated yard. The group exceeding the permitted load of bridges and roads carries a distinctly heavier separate scale: VND 4 to 6 million at over 10% to 20%, VND 13 to 15 million at over 20% to 50%, and VND 40 to 50 million when exceeding by over 50% or refusing weight inspection or transshipment to evade inspection.
Owner and Driver: Both Fined in Parallel
The law sanctions both subjects in parallel according to each one’s role; it does not allow choosing one. The driver is fined under Article 21 as the person directly operating the violating vehicle. The vehicle owner — in the transport enterprise model, the unit owning the vehicle or entrusted with its management — is fined under Article 32 when handing the vehicle over or letting employees or representatives commit the act; in the gravest group, such as letting a vehicle whose total weight or axle load exceeds the road’s permitted load by over 50% run without a circulation permit, or exceeding inspected capacity by over 150%, the owner fine is VND 65 to 75 million for individuals and VND 130 to 150 million for organizations. An FDI enterprise running its own fleet therefore faces the decree’s highest organizational tier for each seriously violating trip, apart from liability to compensate road and bridge damage and contractual fallout with cargo owners when cargo is unloaded mid-route.
Can Licenses Be Revoked
Under the current regime, the driver is no longer suspended from driving for a fixed term but loses points on the 12-point license system: load violations deduct 2 to 10 points, and when points are exhausted the license loses validity until the driver passes the test to restore points. On the enterprise side, the objects exposed are the transport business license and vehicle badges: a unit allowing serious or repeat load violations may have the violating vehicle’s badge revoked and its business conditions handled under Decree 158/2024/ND-CP. In other words, license risk has shifted from the individual driver to the enterprise’s whole fleet governance system, and the load-violation record is a direct input to transport business condition inspections.
Controlling Loads at the Source
An enterprise controls loads effectively through four layers. Layer one is commercial: transport contracts and orders must state the maximum load per each vehicle’s inspection certificate, a clause refusing cargo beyond capacity and allocating unloading and transshipment costs when the shipper tenders cargo over commitment. Layer two is technical: weigh the vehicle before leaving the depot or use an independent weighbridge ticket, and bind weight data to the dispatch order so an overloaded vehicle cannot leave the gate. Layer three is driver governance: do not design pay and bonuses by trip output in a way that rewards overloading, and build load compliance into assessment and internal discipline for violating drivers. Layer four is journey supervision: cross-check journey monitoring data against weigh stations on the route and review anomalies in stopping time and weigh-station-avoidance routing. Done well, load violations become isolated exceptions rather than systemic risk, and the enterprise holds ready governance evidence when authorities inspect business conditions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the fines for overloading and oversize violations in road transport?
Under Article 21 of Decree 168/2024/ND-CP, a driver hauling cargo beyond the permitted weight in the vehicle’s inspection certificate is fined by excess ratio: over 10–30% draws VND 800,000 to 1 million; over 30–50% draws VND 3–5 million; over 50–100% draws VND 5–7 million; over 100–150% draws VND 7–8 million; over 150% draws VND 8–12 million, plus 2 to 10 driving license points deducted and compulsory unloading. Exceeding the permitted load of bridges and roads is fined more heavily: VND 4–6 million, 13–15 million and 40–50 million by excess band and evasion conduct.
Who is fined — the vehicle owner or the driver?
Both are fined in their own roles. The driver is fined under Article 21 of Decree 168/2024/ND-CP for directly operating the violating vehicle. The vehicle owner is fined under Article 32 for handing the vehicle over or letting employees or representatives commit the act; in the gravest group — total weight or axle load exceeding the road’s permitted load by over 50% without a circulation permit, or exceeding the inspected loading capacity by over 150% — the fine is VND 65–75 million for individuals and VND 130–150 million for organizations, so an FDI haulier bears the organizational level for each serious trip.
Can licenses be revoked?
The fixed-term license suspension regime no longer applies; instead the driver loses points on the 12-point license under the Road Traffic Order and Safety Law 2024 — overloading deducts 2 to 10 points, and when points run out the license loses validity until the driver passes a test to restore them. On the enterprise side, vehicle badges and the transport business license may be revoked under Decree 158/2024/ND-CP for serious or repeat violations, so license risk sits with the whole fleet management system.
How can overloading be controlled to avoid fines?
Control works in four layers: contracts and orders state the maximum load per each vehicle’s inspection certificate, the right to refuse overload cargo and the allocation of unloading costs; weighing the vehicle or obtaining a weigh ticket before dispatch and tying weight data to the dispatch order; pay and bonus design that does not reward overloading, with internal discipline for violating drivers; and journey monitoring data cross-checks to detect weigh-station avoidance. This turns violations into isolated exceptions and creates good-governance evidence when authorities inspect business conditions.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council