Expert: Didier Vandon, Paris Public Transport Company

The purpose of the mission was to set up an institutional framework for this training program and define the specific content of the training session. Accompanied by the director of the Hanoi Transport Management and Operation Centre, Didier Vandon met with municipal officials in charge of managing modes of transportation, transport companies (including the director for training drivers that work for TRANSERCO Company), leaders and instructors from the Municipal Driver Training Centre, officials from the Driver’s License Examination Centre, etc. A municipal by-law was drafted to make pre-service bus driver training mandatory.

To date, only one license for heavy vehicles was required, which did not take into account the specific problems of city bus driving. A training centre was identified and the future instructors were briefed on the content of the training course. At the same time, a continuous in-house training component within transportation companies will also be studied in order to enable companies to provide in-service inspection, assessment and upgrading of career drivers. This training will make it possible for drivers to prepare themselves for new technologies (automatic transmissions and the soon-to-come electronic transmission). The expert outlined his proposed training curriculum at a seminar chaired by the deputy director of the Hanoi’s Department of Transport, in the presence of representatives from the Ministry of Transport, the Transport Association of Vietnam, transport companies and researchers.