Buses and trucks to be used in cross border freight transport in GMS



BANGKOK, 19 July 2016 (NNT) - Road freight transport will finally be allowed between countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) starting December 1st, concluding years of negotiations for regional transportation.

Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith revealed that a deal was struck during the latest round of the Joint Committee Meeting for the GMS Cross-Border Transport Agreement (CBTA).

The first two types of vehicles permitted under this agreement are buses and trucks. The agreement applies to GMS nations, which include Thailand, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and China.

The GMS-CBTA joint committee will allow only 500 vehicles from each country to operate within the GMS from December onwards. They will also be given cross-border operation licenses.

The joint committee will spend another three years improving cross-border regulations in GMS countries to allow other types of vehicles to be used in road freight transport.

-- NNT 2016-07-19

"............... to allow other types of vehicles to be used in road freight transport."

Aside from buses and trucks, what other vehicles could they be referring to with regard to road freight?

All the other countries in the GMS are LH drive, as opposed to Thailand, which is RH drive. Vehicles that is.'

Not a problem, since British trucks can be found as far away as Turkey and Romania.

Agreement Joint Committee Retreat.

Is that a euphemism for a free piss up ?

Agreement Joint Committee Retreat.

Is that a euphemism for a free piss up ?

And sleepover with the usual benefits.

Thailand recently implemented new rules that went into effect on June 27th, effectively banning Chinese private cars from entering, because they were causing accidents and their numbers became unsustainable, particularly during holiday times. The rules require advance applications to be made through tourism operators that make the application through the Land Transport Department office of the province where entry is made.

Trucks and buses are different though. I do hope that unlike in the past, on December 1 we will actually be seeing Thai trucks transporting goods all the way to Kunming and vice versa, as well as buses carrying tourists. An agreement amongst the 6 member countries on cross border traffic rights was supposedly secured in 2003, but up until now never put into practice. 13 years after that agreement, Vietnam, China and Myanmar still refuse entry to all foreign registered vehicles, with only a couple of minor exceptions:

Vietnam shares a cross-border transport agreement with Laos, that allows each other's vehicles to cross their common border and applies to trucks, buses and private cars (not motorcycles). No advance permission is necessary and there are no quotas. Vietnam also shares a similar agreement with Cambodia (buses and trucks operate on a quota basis) but in practice not all border crossings follow it.

China and Laos share a loose agreement, but it's massively in China's favor. There are no restrictions on the entry of Chinese private cars, motorcycles even, buses and trucks heading to Laos. Lao vehicles heading to China can only operate as follows: private cars are permitted to be driven only to Jinghong, except if they receive customs permission to drive further, say to Kunming. Buses are allowed to operate on bilateral routes as far as Kunming. Trucks can only carry goods as far as Jinghong.

Vietnam and China are very suspicious of each other. Commercial vehicles must generally offload goods at their common border before a locally registered truck carries it to the final destination. On the GMS CBTA website, there is a claim that an agreement allows Chinese and Vietnamese trucks to operate between Shenzhen and Hanoi/Haiphong, but I'm skeptical that this agreement is actually being followed. Or if it is, I suspect what is actually happening is a Chinese truck drives to the border, offloads the goods into a waiting Vietnamese truck, which then transports it to the final destination (Hanoi or the port at Haiphong). That however, is not what a cross-border transport agreement is supposed to cover. A cross-border agreement is supposed to mean ONE truck can travel all the way without trans loading.

I really do hope this agreement does enter into force as has been agreed to in this meeting, but I won't believe it until I actually see it in practice. Given the precedent set by previous agreements, I remain skeptical though.

"............... to allow other types of vehicles to be used in road freight transport."

Aside from buses and trucks, what other vehicles could they be referring to with regard to road freight?

All the other countries in the GMS are LH drive, as opposed to Thailand, which is RH drive. Vehicles that is.'

Not a problem, since British trucks can be found as far away as Turkey and Romania.

I don't think other vehicle types can be used for road freight transport, though for local trading purposes, overloaded 1-ton single cab pickups with cages have been used for years. Just go to the Friendship Bridge at Mae Sot and you'll see them transporting Thai goods to the Myanmar side, has been happening for years now.

I agree that LHD/RHD is NOT an issue in general. Lao trucks have been entering Thailand and vice versa since an agreement was first signed in 1999; in practice Thai transport operators don't want foreign trucks driving around the country so what tends to happen is you see Lao trucks in Isarn but never in Bangkok. Thai trucks however can be seen all over Laos, especially on major trunk routes connecting the Thai and Vietnamese borders, as well as the Thai and Chinese borders. It's the same in Cambodia but on a more limited basis. A quota agreement allows 30 Thai trucks to enter Cambodia daily but they must operate on a specific route, which is Bangkok-Sra Kaew-Aranyaprathet-Poipet-Phnom Penh-Bavet (Vietnamese border). 10 Cambodian trucks can enter Thailand daily, while 10 Thai buses and 30 Cambodian buses can cross each other's borders. In practice, Cambodian trucks do NOT enter Thailand (or only operate within the border area). Cambodian and Thai buses however do. One can often see the daily Bangkok-Siem Reap or Bangkok-Phnom Penh buses driving to/from the Mo Chit bus terminal and they use Cambodian LHD or Thai RHD buses on an alternate daily basis.

Most Burmese vehicles are RHD despite driving on the right since 1970. This has not been much of an issue for them. Some Cambodian vehicles are also RHD in spite of always driving on the right. Only Vietnam seems to have a problem with RHD - but they must have had a change of heart recently because 20 Thai trucks can now enter Vietnam through the Lao Bao border crossing as part of a limited cross-border agreement signed between the two countries.

I think what the GMS CBTA might eventually cover is private vehicles. It will be interesting to see how this pans out because as I mentioned in my other reply and has been on the news these past couple of months, Thailand has decided to require advance permission from tourists who intend to drive their own cars into Thailand with the exception of vehicles from countries with which a cross-border agreement exists (Laos, Malaysia and Singapore). Additionally, diplomatic and official vehicles and Cambodian/Myanmar registrations traveling in the border areas are also exempted, but Vietnam and Chinese vehicles MUST seek advance permission in all cases before arriving in Thailand, which was not the case before last month.

I don't think it will be easy for the member states to reach a fair, multi-lateral agreement though. I read this article over on the Bangkok Post and one of the points made was that Myanmar was seeking an exemption and will NOT be implementing this agreement with respect to buses and trucks for the time being, because "they have no experience given the new government". They are supposed to agree on something by 2019 however. In reality, I suspect other issues are the real reason - safety concerns, lack of local insurance coverage, lack of international standard road signs and insurgencies in some areas making it dangerous for travel.

I also don't think that Thailand will agree to anything with China regarding private vehicles unless China agrees to remove restrictions on the entry of foreign registrations traveling to its country. Thailand, apart from not wanting to see a repeat of the massive influx of unregulated Chinese cars into its territory also doesn't want to be unfairly treated anymore like it has been so far, given that China requires advance notice from Thai drivers seeking to drive there, up to 3 months before entry. Meanwhile Thailand allowed them in until last month without the Chinese needing to pay anything or giving any notice before arrival.