Licences & Legal Eligibility
A Traffic Penalty Notice Arrives After Your Rental: Questions for the Shop and the Authorities
About 7 minutes to read
A camera-based traffic penalty notice can reach a vehicle owner after a rental has ended. The pages read for this guide do not address rented vehicles, renters or rental shops, so they cannot say who should pay or how a renter abroad is reached. They do describe what Vietnam’s Traffic Police must do when a technical device records a violation and the vehicle is not stopped: who is notified, which details are posted, which time periods run and where a case can be looked up. The questions for the shop are this guide’s own checklist built from those details; the questions for the authorities follow the official steps. Pages were read on 26 October 2026 and may have changed since.
The procedure when the vehicle is not stopped
Circular 73/2024/TT-BCA, issued by the Minister of Public Security on 15 November 2024, covers patrols, checks and the handling of road traffic violations by the Traffic Police. Article 15 says results gathered by technical devices are photos, images, printouts, readings and stored data, and that Article 24 applies when the vehicle cannot be stopped. Under Article 24, clause 1, the police authority at the place of detection has 10 days from detection to identify the vehicle, its owner and any connected organisation or individual through the vehicle registration agency, the national population database and other bodies, and to send a notice (form 01). The text does not say whether the 10 days are working days. The notice asks the owner or connected party to come to the police office that detected the violation or, where travel is difficult, to the commune, ward, town or district police where they live. Clause 2 then points to Article 15, clause 1, of Decree 135/2021/NĐ-CP for handling the case.
What the police post online, and the question each field raises
Article 24 lists the details the authority posts on the Traffic Police Department website and the VNeTraffic app for the owner or connected party to look up. The text read does not reproduce the wording of form 01 itself.
| Detail posted | Question it suggests (this guide’s own) |
|---|---|
| Vehicle type; plate and plate colour | Does the plate match the bike on the booking record? |
| Time and place of the violation | Do they fall inside the rental dates and times? |
| The violation recorded | Is it described clearly, and can the images be seen? |
| Detecting unit | Which police unit recorded it? |
| Resolving unit and contact phone number | Who answers questions about the case? |
How the notice reaches the owner
Clause 1 allows the notice on paper or electronically through the VNeTraffic app once infrastructure conditions are met. A Traffic Police Department news page dated 12/12/2025 19:00 says the app is linked to the national identity app and that, for a person with a level-2 VNeTraffic account named on the vehicle registration certificate, the system sends the notice automatically about 2 hours after it detects the violation and identifies the owner. It names camera monitoring systems and reports from the public as sources of violations. It adds that the app reports progress at the steps notice, record and decision, and that during 2026 an owner who agrees with the notice would be treated as the equivalent of a violation record, with the system issuing the penalty decision for payment in the system or through the National Public Service Portal. That is a plan; the page does not confirm it is running. Nothing read says how a notice reaches a renter who is not the registered owner or who has left Vietnam.
The time limits the pages give
| Step | Period | Where stated |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic notice to a level-2 account holder | About 2 hours after detection and owner identification | Traffic Police Department news page |
| Owner identified and notice sent | 10 days from detection | Circular, Article 24(1) |
| Violation record once the violator is identified | 03 working days | Decree 135/2021, Article 15(1) (vbpl.vn shows the decree as expired in full) |
| Warnings sent to registration and inspection bodies | After more than 20 days from sending the notice | Circular, Article 24(5) |
| Imposing a penalty | 01 year, or 02 years for listed fields | Law 15/2012/QH13, Article 6(1) |
Article 6 counts the year from the moment a finished violation stopped, and restarts it if the person deliberately evades or obstructs the penalty. The vbpl.vn page shows Law 15/2012/QH13 as partly expired (update date 08/05/2026). Its list of two-year fields does not name road traffic, and no page read shows whether another text sets a different period for traffic violations.
Questions to put to the shop
No page covers rentals, so these are this guide’s checklist, not rules from an official page.
- Which rental dates and times does the booking record show, and does the violation time fall inside them?
- Whose name is recorded as the renter, and which contact details are held for that person?
- Did the shop receive the notice, on what date and in what form, on paper or through VNeTraffic?
- Which resolving unit and phone number does the notice give?
- Can the shop send the notice and the booking record in writing?
- What does the rental contract say about traffic notices?
For the contract side, see How to Read a Motorbike Rental Contract Before Paying a Deposit and, for a booking made through a hotel, Motorbike Rental Through a Hotel: Identify the Contracting Shop and Support Contact. For how plates are read, see Vietnamese Motorbike Number Plates: Hanoi’s Plate Codes, Colours and Series, and short rental questions are collected in the Hanoi Motorbike Rental FAQ.
- Which unit detected the violation, which unit is resolving it, and which phone number should be called?
- Has a violation record or a penalty decision been issued? The National Public Service Portal page offers lookup by decision number or by violation record, and a 28/04/2022 Traffic Police Department guide says the portal answers that there is no decision yet and to look again later.
- Can the case be handled at the police where the person lives? Article 24 and Decree 135/2021, Article 15, clause 2, allow this when the person lives elsewhere and cannot come in person; the pages do not address someone abroad.
- Which text governs the owner-resolution step? The vbpl.vn page shows Decree 135/2021/NĐ-CP as expired in full, yet the circular still cites it.
- Which time limit applies to this violation, and from which date does it run?
- How is payment made? The 28/04/2022 guide describes online payment on dichvucong.gov.vn, with held documents collected at the penalising agency or at home.
If a notice goes unanswered
Under Article 24, clause 5, once more than 20 days pass after the notice was sent without the owner or connected party coming to the police, the authority sends a warning to the vehicle registration agency and, for vehicles that must be inspected, the inspection authority. For motorbikes and mopeds it also sends the notice to the commune, ward or town police where that person lives (form 04). Law 36/2024/QH15, Article 43, clause 2(d), says that until a person has completed the competent authority’s requests for resolving a road traffic violation, registration or inspection of the violating vehicle is not processed. When a case is resolved, the unit updates its status on the department website and removes the warning.
What the pages leave out
- No page addresses a vehicle rented to a driver, or says how police tell a renter from a registered owner.
- No page says how a notice reaches someone who has left Vietnam, whether a foreign visitor can hold a level-2 VNeTraffic account, or whether a fine can be settled from abroad.
- The circular says 10 days and 20 days without saying working or calendar days.
- vbpl.vn marks Decree 135/2021/NĐ-CP as expired in full, yet the circular (shown as in force) cites it; no page names a replacing text.
- The vbpl.vn pages label provisions as amended but do not show the earlier wording; their update dates, 29/03/2026 to 14/05/2026, precede the reading date.
- No page states the fine that follows from a particular camera-detected violation, or describes a plate lookup on the national portal.
Sources checked
- Legal database: Circular 73/2024/TT-BCA
- Traffic Police Department: circular page
- Traffic Police Department: VNeTraffic notices
- Traffic Police Department: paying fines online
- National Public Service Portal: violation lookup
- Legal database: Decree 135/2021/NĐ-CP
- Legal database: Law 15/2012/QH13
- Legal database: Law 36/2024/QH15
Thuê xe máy Nguyễn Hà is open 09:00–21:00 daily at Ngõ 5 Nguyễn Văn Cừ, Bồ Đề, Long Biên, Hà Nội (near Gia Lâm bus station). Phone: 0334 699 969.