One Quarter of Foreign Truckers Enter Russia Unauthorized

Up to a quarter of all the foreign truckers that enter Russian territory do so without the necessary authorization. As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, this was announced yesterday at the press conference Why Russian truckers are not competitive on the international market by Head of the International Road Transport Union in Russia Mikhail Nizov. He said that the maximum fine which these truckers may have to pay is only about USD 31.5. As a result it costs Russian truckers about USD 700 more than Belarus truckers to make a single trip because Belarus truckers often fail to obtain the necessary authorization, Mr Nizov explained.

He said that in order to implement better transport control there are now more than 160 road control posts along the Russian border which are operated by transport inspectors of the Russian Transport Ministry. However, Mr Nizov pointed out that these border control points are badly equipped and lack the necessary coordination and as a result 'there is an incredible build-up of transport.' Mr Nizov added that in December 2002, drivers had to wait for up 50 hours in order to cross the Russian border in the north-west section of the border. 'Bearing in mind that Russian truckers lose up to USD 20 every hour that they are waiting at the border, this problem amounts to an annual loss of about USD 60 million,' Mr Nizov emphasised.