A new decree, No. 238/2026/NĐ-CP (amending Decree 168/2024 on traffic violation penalties), promulgated by the Vietnamese government on June 26, takes effect on August 15. For the first time, clear penalties have been set for private cars with white license plates that carry passengers for a fee. The fine is 12-14 million dong (roughly 70,000-82,000 yen at an approximate rate of 1 yen ≈ 170 dong), plus a 6-point deduction from the driver's license. For Japanese residents and business travelers, what matters in practice isn't so much the crackdown on unlicensed taxis as the shifting line in everyday situations like giving a friend a lift or car-pooling to golf.
Charging a fee in a non-commercial car with white plates now means a fine of 12-14 million dong, plus 6 of the annual 12 license points
What's new in this revision is the penalty for drivers of cars not registered as transport businesses (i.e., white-plate cars, xe biển trắng in Vietnamese) who accept payment for carrying passengers, enter into a transport contract, or take a dispatch booking. The fine is12-14 million dongand at the same time, from the driver's license,6 pointsis deducted. Since Vietnam's license point system caps out at 12 points a year, this means losing half of it in one go.
Here's a breakdown of the acts and their penalties:
| Act | Fine (dong) | Approximate yen conversion | License points deducted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrying passengers for a fee in a white-plate car / accepting a transport contract or booking | 12-14 million | Approx. 70,000-82,000 yen | 6 points |
| A contract passenger vehicle (xe hợp đồng) picking up passengers outside the contract or selling tickets | Up to 24 million | Approx. 140,000 yen | — |
| No child seat (children under 10 or under 1.35m tall) | Warning only (eased from the previous 800,000-1,000,000 dong) | — | — |
All yen conversions are rough estimates at 1 yen ≈ 170 dong and will shift with the exchange rate. The real point isn't the size of the fine, but the clarity of the design: a non-commercial car becomes subject to it the moment money changes hands.
The target: the free-for-all of "xe ghép" and "xe tiện chuyến" that grew in the gaps left by Grab-style ride-hailing
The backdrop is the carpooling business that has spread into a gray area alongside the growth of ride-hailing apps. In Vietnam, putting passengers heading the same direction into one car xe ghép(ride-sharing), or transporting people between cities cheaply, xe tiện chuyến(a tag-along ride) have long been actively traded over social media and chat apps. Most are private cars without formal transport registration — operating as a business in practice while, on paper, posing as simply "giving an acquaintance a ride." Decree 238 brings this "disguised contract passenger vehicle" (xe hợp đồng trá hình) under its penalties, and also bans turning offices or branches into hidden bus terminals where passengers board and alight.
In discussions on the Vietnamese outlet VOV, police officers and transport industry figures on the ground have repeatedly raised the question of how to prove that money changed hands. Whether a passenger is a friend or a paying customer is hard to tell from the outside, and enforcement is expected to rely on cross-checking tip-offs against dispatch records. On the car forum otosaigon, regular drivers have posted that "this will make off-app direct deals much harder to pull off," while others take a cooler view: "in the end it comes down to tip-offs, and only whoever happens to get stopped pays." The net won't catch every case, but it's worth remembering that a single hit now means an asymmetric risk: a 70,000-82,000 yen fine and the loss of half a year's license points in one go.
Where Japanese residents are most likely to get caught: giving a friend a ride and accepting a token of thanks
What long-term residents and expatriates on assignment really need to watch isn't running a white taxi business per se, but the everyday exchange of money that comes with it. For example, driving a colleague to the airport and being handed cash as "gas money," or collecting a shared fare from several people on a golf outing or day trip — these acts edge close to "carrying passengers for a fee" on the surface. The line between a genuine even split and running a business is blurry, and depending on how often it happens and how the money is collected, there's room for it to be flagged.
The safe approach is either not to let money change hands at all, or, if it does, to go through a licensed dispatch service. In Vietnam, besides Grab , there's also the electric taxi Xanh SM, and the local be — these are the main ride-hailing apps, and all of them dispatch vehicles and drivers properly registered as transport operators. For airport transfers or moving a group, using one of these shifts the risk to the operator rather than the driver. On the other hand, someone who carpools as a passenger in an individually arranged xe ghép found via chat isn't the main target of the penalty, but the lack of guaranteed insurance or vehicle maintenance in the event of an accident remains a concern. This mirrors a similar shift in Hanoi, where 24 bus routesswitched to distance-based fares, so forgetting to tap out now means being charged the full end-of-line fare— the system is leaning the same way: stray from the official route and you pay a steeper price.
The same Decree 238 eases the child seat fine to a warning, and its penalties reach businesses too
Decree 238 isn't all crackdown. Under the same revision, carrying a child under 10 or under 1.35m tall without a safety seat, previously fined 800,000-1,000,000 dong, has been eased toa warning. This appears to be a measure prioritizing awareness during the early rollout of the rule. We've covered this separately on this sitethe new child seat rule from August 15as its own topic, and within the same decree and the same effective date, you can see "tightening" and "grace period" coexisting side by side.
On the business side, a contract passenger vehicle picking up passengers outside its contract or selling tickets now faces a fine of up to 24 million dong, and failing to install or properly operate an in-cabin camera carries a fine of 5-6 million dong for individuals and 10-12 million dong for organizations. Penalties for not having a dashcam-style recording device phase in from January 1, 2028 for passenger and cargo vehicles with fewer than 8 seats, and from January 1, 2029 for the passenger cabin. This money-changing-hands rule isn't an isolated crackdown — it's easier to understand as one piece of a broader push to regulate the transport sector on every front.
The approach to the new rule is the same as with the crypto crackdown: "check whether it applies to you first"
When a rule changes, the first thing residents should do isn't memorize the text word for word, but check whether their own daily habits fall within its scope. In this case, two questions are enough: "Do I regularly carry people in a car and accept money for it?" and "if so, can I switch to a licensed dispatch service instead?" The same logic applied toVietnam's new crypto rules, whose penalties take effect from September 1. The new decree may look broad, but the part that actually touches residents' daily lives is limited. Don't take payment for a ride, and if you do, go through Grab, Xanh SM, or be — that switch alone avoids most of the risk starting August 15.
Sources referenced
- LuatVietnam — Roundup of new traffic-related policies taking effect in August
- Nhân Dân — Decree 238/2026 tightens management of contract passenger transport
- Báo Xây Dựng — Crackdown on disguised contract vehicles and carpooling, fines up to 14 million dong and a 6-point license deduction
- VOV — Fining private cars for carrying paying passengers: how will it be enforced?
