As a strategic combined, multimodal transport unit, Brigade 683 (under Department of Vehicles, Machinery, and Transport, General Department of Logistics - Technology) is tasked with transporting personnel, weaponry, and logistics materials for other units stationed in the Central - Central Highlands area by road, rail, and sea and maintaining readiness for many other missions.

Over the years, the Brigade has always adhered to its political tasks, heightening proactivity, self-reliance, and self-strengthening, overcoming all difficulties, well performing all missions, fulfilling all targets and plans assigned by its higher echelons, with an yearly average transport volume ranging from 25,000 to 30,000 tons, ensuring absolute safety in all aspects. In 2023 and 2024, it achieved the title of “Determined to Win” Unit.

Technical inspection prior to a mission

To obtain those good results, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have grasped higher echelons’ directives and strengthened their leadership and direction over the improved transport capacity. Advocating resolute, close leadership and direction in each task, all-level party committees and commands have seriously executed higher echelons’ resolutions, directives, and orientations for transport work; those documents have been concretised into specific targets in their yearly, quarterly, monthly resolutions and action plans relevant to the task requirements of their offices and units. In the process, the Brigade has clearly delegated authority, responsibilities, and tasks to its offices and units, exercising its close direction over the implementation of the established measures for improving its transport capacity. Offices and units have promoted the role of forces and organisations, heightening a sense of responsibility, well performing all assigned transport tasks.

Currently, due to a regular shortage of staff members at nearly 25%, the Brigade has attached importance to political and ideological education to render cadres and soldiers fully aware of their tasks, raise their political zeal, motivation, sense of responsibility, and resolve, and enable them to readily undertake all missions. It has frequently encouraged its cadres and soldiers to promote their proactivity to overcome difficulties, remain unity, and devote efforts to every mission. Offices and units have concretised transport tasks into targets of the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle and the Determined to Win Emulation Movement in each period and area of expertise. The Brigade has stepped up the emulation movements, namely “well maintaining vehicles, driving vehicles safely” and “building regular, safe, effective transport units” in line with the Campaign entitled “managing and exploiting weapons and technical equipment effectively, sustainably, safely, economically and ensuring traffic safety”, thus creating synergy for its task performance.

The Brigade has attached great value to the work of transport planning, management, and operation in a close, scientific, effective manner. It has regularly conducted surveys on the condition of its assigned transport routes as the basis for developing scientific transport plans, determining commands, and assigning specific tasks to its units. It has enhanced the decentralisation of transport work flexibly, deploying its personnel, vehicles, and equipment for each task and route properly, adopting payload utilisation and distance utilisation factors to maximise transport productivity and ensure the greatest safety for each transport task. It has frequently promoted democracy in discussing and identifying transport projects, anticipating situations, proactively designing flexible mitigation projects in the transport process, particularly for complex routes and under harsh weather conditions. In the transport process, it has required that the command system be smooth, the transport formation be scientific and close with sufficient forces and equipment to deal with possible situations.

In addition to military administrative reform, thanks to its relatively synchronised, modern infrastructures, the Brigade has basically put its operations into the digital environment, thereby facilitating its management, direction, and operation work via the intranet and improving its affiliates’ management, command, and operation capabilities. Offices and units have applied science and technology to designing their transport plans, quickly performing their transport tasks, and shortening steps of the transport process, thus preventing goods from degenerating or being damaged.

As a highly coordinated activity, to fulfil its assigned transport targets and plans, while raising its cadres’ command and operation capacity, the Brigade has added great weight to renewing and improving coordination with handing over and receiving units to ensure closeness, quickness, and smoothness, contributing to increasing its transport productivity. At the same time, it has enhanced inspection work at all levels, requiring its affiliates to organise conferences to seriously draw lessons after each transport task and keep improving their transport capability.

To transport goods of various types in a large area, the Brigade has made a breakthrough in raising the quality of training its drivers. The Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have focused their leadership and direction on renewing forms and methods of training work, organising refresher courses on staff work, coordination, management, command, and operation for its cadres at all levels, creating an incentive for raising the quality of training in general, specialised training in particular. Emphasis has been placed on training troops to master and effectively use the existing equipment and vehicles, especially modern, new-generation ones. The Brigade has regularly conducted reviews, designing and executing plans for assessing its staff members’ vocational skills. To render its cadres and soldiers confident about their driving skills on all routes, the Brigade has organised full-time driving training courses and actively improved driving skills of its staff members during field transport missions, particularly for its combat readiness drivers and new drivers. On a yearly basis, it has trained 7 - 10 new or unqualified drivers, enabling them to achieve proficiency in this regard.

Besides, the Brigade has frequently strictly organised level-up and level maintenance examinations for its drivers, sailors, and repairmen, promoting a sense of responsibility, proactivity, and creativity among its cadres at all levels, especially platoon and company cadres and experienced drivers. At the same time, it has intensified traffic safety training, organising exercises to improve manoeuvrability and capability in rapid release of goods, enhancing training contests to seriously draw lessons at all levels and raise the quality of specialised training for its cadres and soldiers. As a result, the professional competence of its drivers has been considerably improved to meet the requirements of both regular and irregular missions.

The Brigade has regularly exercised its close, resolute direction over logistics and technical work to provide all-round, timely support for its combat readiness and military transport tasks. It has received and stored materials distributed by higher echelons under regulations, ensuring sufficient, timely materials for its units responsible for transport and for vehicle repair and maintenance. Offices and units have promoted a sense of responsibility for statistical and report work, closely managing the quality, quantity, and synchronicity of their vehicle groups, grasping the strength of their technical means. They have proactively worked with relevant units in registration and inspection, ensuring sufficient administrative procedures for their vehicles under regulations.

There is a fact that military transport work is frequently affected by both objective and subjective factors. Thus, the Brigade has always concentrated on preventing safety incidents and vehicle breakdowns from impacting on transport tasks, which has been seen as its consistent viewpoint. That is also a “command from the heart” for every cadre and soldier of the Brigade. In the process, the Brigade has attached special importance to maintaining vehicles and equipment, particularly its combat readiness means, and transporting weapons, ammunition, and petroleum.

In spite of investments from higher echelons, a majority of the Brigade’s vehicles and vessels have been in use for ages. Hence, the Brigade has strictly maintained regulations on technical work, raising the quality of technical hour on a daily basis, technical day on a weekly basis, and technical contest on a quarterly basis. It has directed its affiliates to keep a close watch on technical conditions, well carry out the work of maintaining and repairing equipment and means at each level, promote technical initiatives and innovations, undertake, apply, and multiply research projects and initiatives, such as “Oil and grease separator for industrial waste”, “Pneumatic brake system model on Hyundai HD170 vehicles”, “device for disassembling and assembling military vehicles’ wheels”, and “valve disassembly and assembly device”, thus contributing to raising the quality of repair, well maintaining the technical condition of vehicles for combat readiness and transport tasks. It has proactively designed plans for repairing and maintaining military vehicles and vessels, closely organising bidding activities under regulations, and guaranteeing the technical coefficient of its vehicles and vessels.

Furthermore, the Brigade has paid special attention to ensuring safety during transport missions. On a yearly basis, offices and units have designed and closely, effectively executed traffic safety plans, regularly conducting propagation and education work to raise awareness and a sense of responsibility among cadres and soldiers towards statutory regulations on traffic safety, especially Prime Minister’s Directive 35/CT-TTg, dated 17 September 2024, on handling violations of regulations of zero blood alcohol content when driving by staff members of the armed forces. Great value has been attached to adhering to principles for handover, reception, and final settlement in loading, unloading, and transporting goods as well as preventing adverse weather elements in the transport process. The Brigade has strictly maintained inspection work before, during, and after each transport task to avoid unexpected incidents. It has proactively cooperated with relevant offices and units in organising occupational health check-ups, conducting work environment monitoring, establishing lightning protection systems, and ensuring the safety of its electricity system. As a result, in the past 10 years, it has not experienced any safety incident due to subjective mistakes or any vehicle breakdowns; it has ensured the safety of its personnel and equipment as the basis for building an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong Brigade capable of all assigned tasks.

Col. PHAM VAN CHUNG

Commander of the Brigade