What is inland container depot? 05 Criteria for identification of an inland container depot in Vietnam

 What is inland container depot? 05 Criteria for identification of an inland container depot in Vietnam (Internet image)

1. What is inland container depot?

According to Clause 1, Article 3 of Decree 38/2017/ND-CP, inland container depot is part of transport infrastructure, a focal point of organization of transport connected with operations of seaports, airports, inland waterway ports, railway stations and land border gates, and at the same time functions as a border gate for imports and exports.

2. 05 Criteria for identification of an inland container depot in Vietnam

Specifically, in Article 7 of Decree 38/2017/ND-CP, the criteria for identification of an inland container depot include:

(1) Comforming to the approved master plan on development of the inland container depot system.

(2) Being connected to major transport corridors and seaports serving regional economic development.

(3) Having at least two modes of transport to facilitate multimodal transport or being directly connected to one high-capacity mode of transport.

(4) Being large enough for arrangement of working offices for related agencies and organizations and having sufficient land areas to meet long-term development needs; being at least 5 ha in area, for a newly formed inland container depot.

(5) Satisfying the law-prescribed requirements on fire and explosion prevention and fighting and environmental protection.

3. Functions of inland container depots in Vietnam

The inland container depots have the following functions:

- To receive and consign containerized cargoes.

- To load cargoes into and unload cargoes from containers.

- To accommodate containers for transportation to seaports and other places in accordance with law.

- To inspect, and complete the customs procedures for, imports and exports.

- To gather and divide less-than-container-load cargoes of different owners in the same containers.

- To temporarily store imports and exports, and containers.

- To repair and maintain containers.

(Article 6 of Decree 38/2017/ND-CP)

4. Services at inland container depots in Vietnam

According to Article 9 of Decree 38/2017/ND-CP, services at inland container depots include:

- Transport support services:

= Loading and unloading service, including container and cargo loading and unloading;

= Warehousing service;

= Transport agency service;

= Customs clearance agency service;

= Cargo tally service;

= Container reinforcement, repair and cleaning service;

- Transport services.

- Cargo value-adding services: packaging, division, re-packaging, classification, labeling, processing, assembly, and inspection, and other added-value services.

- Other services as prescribed by law.

5. Contents of state management of inland container depots in Vietnam

Contents of state management of inland container depots are specified in Article 4 of Decree 38/2017/ND-CP as follows:

- Formulating, promulgating, and organizing the implementation of, legal documents on inland container depots; and standards, national technical regulations and techno-economic norms related to inland container depots.

- Formulating, approving, and organizing the implementation of, the master plan on development of inland container depots.

- Concluding, acceding to, and organizing the implementation of, treaties concerning inland container depots in accordance with law.

- Announcing the opening, closure or suspension of operation of inland container depots.

- Managing the construction and operation of inland container depot infrastructure.

- Performing the specialized state management of activities of people, vehicles and cargo at inland container depots (cargo inspection, performance of customs procedures, quarantine, environmental pollution prevention, security and order maintenance, and fire and explosion prevention and fighting safety).

- Managing prices, charges and fees related to the operation of inland container depots.

- Compiling statistics on inland container depots.

- Inspecting, examining, settling complaints and denunciations, and handling violations in accordance with law.

Thanh Rin

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