Reduce the transport costs with the type of sea and river ship

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In 2018, the volume of goods transported by VR-SB vehicles through seaports reached nearly 35 million tonnes, an increase of more than seven times compared to 2015. Source: Internet.

Create opportunities for businesses

Starting from the first coastal route in July 2014 with three coastal transport routes, including Quang Ninh –Quang Binh, Binh Thuan – Kien Giang and Quang Binh-Binh Thuan routes, after that, the Ministry of Transport connected the route running from north-south like ships for this type of sea and river transport (VR-SB).

Assessing the benefits of this type of transport, many businesses said the coastal transport route has created opportunities for transport businesses to develop and expand their business. In addition, the benefits brought by coastal transport route are significantly reducing the load on the roads, creating competition in transportation on long distances, and also reducing the risk of invisible traffic accidents, as well as road and environmental pollution. Transport costs of this type have decreased significantly with freight rates of only about a third of the road and cheaper than ships.

According to the Vietnam Register, by the end of May 2019, the total number of coastal vehicles (VR-SB) was 1,786, of which 839 were freight trains with a total tonnage of 1.74 million tonnes, the number of passenger ships is 288 units with total passenger capacity of 18,550 passengers, the number of other ships is 659.

The average annual growth of cargo throughput is also increasing. In 2018, volume of goods transported by VR-SB vehicles through the seaport reached nearly 35 million tonnes, seven times more than in 2015. The number of vehicles entering and leaving seaports also increased sharply from 5,175 in 2015 to 28,750 in 2018.

The volume of cargo transported by VR-SB vehicles through seaports from the opening of the route (from June 2014) to the end of April 2019 announced by the Vietnam Maritime Administration reached nearly 85 million tonnes of cargo with more than 81,500 vehicles in and out of seaports.

Development beyond planning

According to Vu Duc Ngo, Director of Vu Gia Tam Trade and Transport Company Limited (Diem Dien, Thai Binh), previously, before VR-SB ships, Vu Gia Tam Company had only 9,000 tonnes means, after the sea and river type was licensed, the current tonnage of vehicles was nearly 21,000 tonnes, so the shipping volume of the unit doubled compared to before 2014.

Even with the same tonnage, with the advantage of low draft, VR-SB can still move into shallow ports, which can take advantage of time to enter the port of loading and unloading of goods earlier than the ship has to wait for tides to rise in the rivers, generating additional costs and time. In addition, VR-SB ships also bring economic benefits to businesses when the cost of building SB ships compared to ships is reduced by 10-15 percent. Investing in VR-SB, the owner can save 30-40 percent of the cost by not having to spend too much money but still improving vehicle load. Vessels of small tonnage and inefficiency can be converted to VR-SB.

According to Vu Duc Ngo, if at the beginning, VR-SB was only allowed to run to Quang Binh, it was a bit difficult for businesses, but after a year of implementation, the Ministry of Transport allowed to run the route longer until the end of Ha Tien and Phu Quoc, the source of goods is as diverse and plentiful, helping businesses diversify sources of goods.

However, this type of transport is developing beyond planning and is not suitable for the type of sea and river when there are ships with a tonnage of more than 20,000 tonnes. Therefore, the Vietnam Maritime Administration has proposed the Ministry of Transport to upgrade VR-SB standards such as: Supplementing regulations on crew members working on VR-SB vehicles; must have safety and firefighting equipment equivalent to ships of grade 3 or higher; additional training programmes on foreign languages ​​for crew members working on VR-SB vehicles to meet the communication when the ship operates at sea to avoid unsafe conditions for vehicles and crew and cause unfair competition.