Being a strategic transport unit under the Department of Transport (General Department of Logistics), the Brigade 972 is tasked with transporting logistics materials, weapons, and troops of Southern units, taking part in search and rescue and natural disaster mitigation, and maintaining readiness for performing the contingency missions assigned by higher echelons. On a yearly basis, the Brigade has to transport a large number of goods with a high risk of fire and explosion; its forces and vehicles are scattered in a large area. Meanwhile, most of the Brigade’s equipment and vehicles have been used for a long time; the competence of its drivers, crewmen, and technicians is not equal. Things mentioned above have greatly impacted on its troops’ legal awareness and observance as well as its task performance. Perceiving the advantages and difficulties, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have taken various measures synchronously for making itself comprehensively strong, with emphasis placed on the work of legal education and traffic safety.

First of all, the Brigade has enhanced all-level party committees and commands’ leadership and direction over the work of legal education and traffic safety. Grounded on higher echelons’ directives and guiding documents on the work of legal propagation, dissemination, and education, yearly, the Brigade’s Party Committee and all-level party committees and cells develop specialized resolutions while commanders build the action plans. In the process, the Brigade has adopted numerous measures for raising the awareness and responsibility of all groups of troops towards the observance of the State’s law and military discipline and traffic safety, with a focus on disseminating higher echelons’ directives and guiding documents and legal normative documents on this issue. Significance has been attached to the Party Central Secretariat’s Directive 18-CT/TW on “enhancing the Party’s leadership over the work of ensuring land traffic, railway, and inland waterway order and safety and the settlement of traffic congestion,” the Road Traffic Law of 2008, the Decree 107/2014/NĐ-CP on administrative penalties on administrative penalties for road traffic offenses and rail transport offenses, the Decree 24/2015/NĐ-CP on detailed regulations and measures for executing a number of the Inland Waterway Law and the Law amending and supplementing a number of the Inland Waterway Law, and the Resolution 437-NQ/ĐU by the Transport Department’s Party Committee on “strengthening legal education and discipline management, ensuring units’ safety and traffic safety.”

A training course intended for the Brigade’s drivers

Under the motto of “practicality and effectiveness,” the Brigade has adhered to higher echelons’ guidance to proactively develop the legal education plans/programs for all groups of troops. At the same time, it has selected topics relevant to the function of units, such as road transport, waterway transport, rail transport, system of depots and stations, while holding training courses on relevant laws and regulations properly. In addition, importance has been attached to introducing the Charter for the Transport Work of the Vietnam People’s Army, the Charter of the Work of Military Vessels, the regulations on keeping secrets and ensuring safety, especially the regulations on fire and explosion prevention and combat. Forms of study have been flexibly adopted in line with the condition and task of each unit. Moreover, the Brigade has actively renewed forms and methods of education, combined full-time education with legal education contests, and promoted cultural institutions at grass-roots level, especially Ho Chi Minh’s halls and legal bookcases. Recently, the Brigade has developed an online system of legal questions and visual legal multiple-choice questions used in regular contests for drivers and crewmen in order to contribute to raising the quality of this important work.

In the complex traffic condition with a high risk of traffic accidents nowadays, together with raising the awareness of observance of law, the work of traffic safety greatly depends on the competence of cadres, drivers, and crewmen. Thus, the Brigade has always attached importance to combining legal propagation and education with the improvement of this staff’s skills and competence as one of its central tasks and an incentive for its task performance. To that end, the Brigade has strictly maintained the order for training with emphasis placed on providing comprehensive, specialized, focalized training, combining specialized training with military training, and increasing training courses on traffic safety, manoeuvre, quick settlement of goods, and transport maintenance in the hi-tech warfare. The Brigade has focused on enhancing the staff and transport management and command capacity of cadres and commanders. Significance has been attached to improving the Brigade’s drivers, crewmen, and technicians’ professional competence and skills in exploiting, using, and maintaining vehicles, particularly the new-generation ones. Notably, the Brigade has attached great value to enhancing the driving skills and professional competence of drivers, crewmen, and technicians who have just graduated from vocational schools. It has established groups of excellent and experienced technicians and drivers for giving instructions on how to deal with the situations and repair vehicles outside their unit, thereby making its drivers and crewmen capable of handling normal breakdowns when necessary. In addition, the Brigade has devoted efforts to raising the quality of contests and specialized exams intended for drivers, crewmen, and technicians as well as drawing lessons and exchanging experiences after each transport task, thereby developing its cadres, employees and soldiers’ skills and professional competence and making them capable of successfully fulfilling their assigned task.

As its vehicles have been exploited for many years, the Brigade has always attached great value to carrying out the work of technical support for vehicles and vessels, advocating that the technical work is one step ahead in all missions. Over the past years, the Brigade has grasped and stringently implemented the Resolution 382-NQ/ĐUQSTW by the Central Military Commission on “leadership over the technical work in the new situation” and the Campaign entitled “managing and exploiting weapons and technical equipment in an effective, sustainable, safe, economical manner and traffic safety.” The regulations and order for the technical work have been regularly, strictly maintained and become daily routine of each collective and individual. Besides, due regard has been paid to raising the quality of units-based repairs, enhancing the technical coefficient of vehicles, equipment, and military hardware, promoting the effectiveness of “technical hour” every day, “technical day” on a weekly basis, and “technical festive day” quarterly. Moreover, the Brigade has always encouraged its cadres and soldiers to bring into play initiatives and apply technical innovations to extending the lifespan of vehicles, vessels, and technical equipment, while enhancing technical inspection of safety maintenance at all levels. In addition to stepping up inspection and maintenance of vehicles and equipment, units of the Brigade have shown videos related to traffic safety to their troops. They have analyzed specific situations to help their drivers and crewmen draw lessons on dealing with traffic situations. They have also strictly maintained the order for technical inspection of vehicles before, during, and after each mission with top priority given to ensuring traffic safety. As a result, means of transport, weapons, and technical equipment managed and exploited by the Brigade have always met the requirements for regular and unscheduled missions and maintained readiness for the task in all situations.

 To improve its task performance, the Brigade has organized its forces and means of transport in a close, scientific fashion. For each mission, the Brigade has directed its units to formulate the transport plans properly, carefully map out the route and position of command, calculate the speed, and select drivers, crewmen, and technicians capable of the assigned task. Experienced cadres, party members, drivers, and crewmen have been assigned to perform the difficult, durable tasks. New staff members and those who have difficulties in their family circumstances have been allowed to take part in short business trips to accumulate their hands-on experience. At the same time, the Brigade has stringently maintained the regulations on drivers and navigators’ licences for means of transport and their fitness when they conduct the transport task. In the transport process, commanders have always strictly maintained the discipline for movement and billeting, followed the regulations on formation, speed, and time and reminded their inferiors about difficulties, advantages, and characteristics of each route. Besides, due attention has been paid to ensuring troops’ material and mental life and their fitness, harmoniously handling relationships, and strengthening a sense of unity during traffic activities. After each mission, units of the Brigade have drawn lessons, clearly indicated weak and strong points, and opportunely rewarded and multiplied typical examples as an important criterion for assessing individuals and collectives’ yearly task performance. By adopting those measures, in the first half of 2019, the Brigade transported 13,500 tons of goods of all types, accomplished the targets of regular and unscheduled transport, and ensured the absolute safety.

Its obtained results have provided an incentive for the Brigade to continue building a “regular, safe, effective” transport unit and making itself strong comprehensively to deserve to be a strategic transport unit and meet the task requirements in the new situation.

Sr. Col. Tran Bich Son, Commander of the Brigade