At 10 p.m. Wednesday, at the 29-11D vehicle registry center in Chuong My District, hundreds of drivers line up their cars along the National Highway 6 to wait for their turn to complete registration procedures the next morning.
Cars with 4-7 seats span a row that's over 200 m long, while the row on the other side of the road is of trucks.
Drivers talk with one another in front of the center's gate.
Tran Khanh Duong, director of the center, said it registers around 120 vehicles every day. However, in the past few days, thousands of vehicles have been coming to the center every day, overloading the center's capacity and forcing drivers to wait for long periods of time.
Vuong Van Thuong, 32, drives a 1.25 ton truck from Ung Hoa District to the center, a 50 km trip. Other centers near his home have already been suspended due to numerous violations.
"This is the third night I've had to wait until my turn for vehicle registry. The first day I came here, there were over 20 cars in front, and when it was my turn, they said my car had to be repaired before it could be registered. When I came back, time ran out and I had to line up all over again," Thuong said.
While they wait, drivers sit in groups so they can keep an eye on their vehicles from a distance, worried that someone will steal parts.
Some drivers sleep right inside their vehicles as they wait. At the 29-11D center, there are around 20 drivers who have waited two nights for their turn to register.
Nguyen Hong Tam, 50, eats rice with salt, peanuts and sesame prepared by his wife. She traveled 12 km to deliver the food. Tam has been outside the center for two days waiting to register his vehicle's.
Outside the gates, over 60 cars with 4-7 seats, as well as trucks, can be seen forming two lines, going deep inside a nearby neighborhood.
Drivers prepare food and other necessities to help them spend days at the location to get their vehicles registered. Many said that due to the high travel demand during the year-end period, being forced to wait makes them impatient. However, if they fail to renew the paperwork, their vehicles' registration will expire during Tet.
Drivers cannot sleep well as they have to guard cargo inside their vehicles throughout the night.
The Vietnam Register said there are over 21,000 cars in the country whose registrations expired on January 1, 2023. There are around 2,000 such cars in Hanoi alone.
The 3301S vehicle registration center in Ha Dong District has suspended registering procedures.
There are around 30 vehicle registration centers in Hanoi, but 11 of them have been suspended, either pending police investigations for bribery or due to fire safety violations.
On Wednesday, Dang Viet Ha, director of the Vietnam Register, was arrested for allegedly taking bribes from registration centers across the country to ignore violations.
Previously, dozens of directors, vice directors and other employees at vehicle registration centers across the country, including HCMC, have also been arrested and are under investigation.
