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August 1: transport fare to rise 10%
The Northern Automobile Transportation Association said as of August 1, 2008, its members will increase transport fare by between 8-10%.
The 10% rise of fare will applied for routes of less than 100km and 8% for long routes and the north-south route.
Nguyen Tat Thanh, Director of the Southern Coach Station in Hanoi, said transporters would surely ask to raise transportation charges early this week. This happened already for the previous raises of petrol prices.
Nguyen Manh Hung, Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transportation Association, said the recent increase of petrol price has caused a lot of difficulties for automobile transportation. He said firms had anticipated this but was still surprised with the too high increase.
Hung said some transportation companies in the northern province of Quang Ninh and in HCM City had asked for permission to stop operating or cut some routes.
“Expenditures for petrol-powered coaches have increased by at least 16% and around 10% for petroleum-consuming vehicles,” Hung added.
Vu Van Tuyen, Chairman cum General Director of the Hoang Long Transportation Co., Ltd., said his company incurred losses of VND13 billion ($765,000) when the petrol price rose for the first time in 2008. The only way to cut losses, according to Tuyen, is raising transportation charges.
He said Hoang Long will increase its charges by 10%.
Nguyen Xuan Bac, Director of the Water Transportation Company No. 3, said his company may suffer loses of VND1.4 billion (over $82,000) in the second half of 2008, after the diesel price increased from VND15,950 to VND17,950/litre as of July 21, 2008.
Bac said his company will raise fare while investing in vehicles and diversifying services as measures to deal with the current difficult situation.
VNN
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