It has been more than a month since the historic flood hitting Da Nang, but many car owners citywide have not been able to have floodwater-damaged vehicles fixed. Even though customers impatiently waited to register for checkups and repair, they still have to wait in long lines because the garages were overloaded.

An increasing number of cars are taken to garages for repair and warranty, leading to overload. Broken-down vehicles are gathered at the Dai Duong auto repair garage in Lien Chieu District, Da Nang. Photo: CHIEN THANG

As surveyed at many car garages in the city, the situation of broken-down cars waiting in long queues for auto maintenance and repair services has been reported over recent days.

Some garages have temporarily stopped receiving more cars to ensure the quality of repairs in amidst the fact that there were a few mechanics but the number of cars was many times higher than usual.

As reported by Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, the owner of the Hien Thanh garage based in Hoa Cuong Nam Ward, Hai Chau District, customers now have to make appointments for auto fixing services, even conducting money transfer in advance so as to avoid waiting a long time for their turn. "From morning until now, I has received 2-3 cars whereas as many as 100 cars are lined up in the parking lot to wait for repairs”, said Thanh.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nguyen Duy Doan, the Director of Da Nang Automobile Garage Technology JSC in Hoa Minh Ward, Lien Chieu District said that he and the company’s technical staff now have to work overtime continuously to serve a boom in demand for car repair and maintenance. Every day, his garage receives 5-10 cars for checkups. It is known that the number of damaged vehicles now is 2-3 times more than the figure recorded in the previous years. Most of the customers are from areas that were heavily flooded in the heavy flood on October 14.

“Due to a surge increase in the number of vehicles, we had to ask our guests to park their vehicles in the surrounding areas. The garage had to post a notice to recruit more employees 2 weeks ago because with the current 8 technical staff, we are still short of workers”, said Doan.

Mr. Pham Tan Phat, a resident in Hoa Khanh Nam Ward, Lien Chieu District complained, after the October 14 flood, he had his car craned by mobile rescue forces to a garage for repair but so far he has not been able to get the car back.

His car was reported to have a hydraulic fault and the electrical system and the interior of the car were almost damaged. The total cost is expected to be more than VND60 million. At this time, an old motorcycle is temporarily used by Phat and his wife as the main means of transportation while waiting for the car to be fixed.

Mr. Nguyen Van Binh, the Service Manager of Hyundai Song Han auto store said that recently the number of new customers has increased dramatically. On average, every day, the workshop receives between 30 and 50 vehicles, this number is many times higher than the garage’s actual capacity.

“Most of the cars that are brought here for maintenance and repair generally have very serious "illnesses", many of them have water-triggered damage, electrical short, ventilation system problems  which makes it usually takes a long time, event several months for full recovery, said Binh.

Mr. Dinh Van Ba, the Chief Representative of the Da Nang Automobile Transport Association said that, in a short time, it is not possible to resolve the overload at the city’s car garage system as the new year is approaching. This is the time when many people need to take their cars to garages for maintenance and repair while the amount of cars left behind due to the recent flooding has not been completely fixed. It is predicted that the number of cars parked in wait for repair will continue until the time of the Lunar New Year (Tet) 2023 holiday break.

Feasible solutiond that garages can apply temporarily to avoid the current overload are to recruit more workers, promote at-home mobile repair services for vehicles that are in need of minor maintenance, and enhance the skills of human resources to ensure quicker and more effective repair process, and avoid receiving too many cars at the same moment that may result in overload.

Reporting by CHIEN THANG - Translating by A.THU