The vice-president of Gaia City Council has rejected the municipality's participation in a digital registration platform for heavy goods vehicles using the Porto Inner Ring Road (VCI), despite supporting the ban on through-traffic. Firmino Pereira described the proposed requirement to register every journey via a digital form at least one hour in advance as an 'absurd bureaucratic burden'. While Gaia supports restricting heavy vehicles that use the VCI merely as a transit route between the north and south of the country, the council insists that vehicles with origins or destinations within Gaia must remain exempt to protect the local economy. Porto's mayor, Pedro Duarte, stated that the government is working on a technical solution to enforce the ban, with hopes for implementation by summer, though a full rollout is not expected until the second half of 2026.