Romanian Transporters Call for Schengen Membership As Trucks Wait for 36 Hours at the Borders

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The National Union of Road Transporters from Romania (UNTRR) has raised concerns about prolonged waiting times at Romania's borders.
• Waiting times at Bucharest reach up to 36 hours from Bulgaria, 5-7 days from Moldova, and over 11 days from Ukraine.
• These delays not only hinder the operations of Romanian carriers but also have a negative impact on the national economy, causing disruptions in the timely delivery of essential goods.

The National Union of Road Transporters from Romania (UNTRR) has warned that long waiting times to enter Romania bloc the activity of Romanian carriers and also disrupt the national economy, emphasising that the accession to Schengen would make this process easier.

Through a statement, UNTRR has said that trucks wait 36 hours in order to reach Romania from Bulgaria, 5- 7 days to enter from Moldova, and more than 11 days to enter from Ukraine.

The Union has stressed that waiting times at Romania’s borders have increased significantly recently, thus causing delays in the delivery of food, products and goods that affect citizens as well as the economy ahead of end-of-year holidays.

UNTRR has said that if Romania were part of the Schengen Zone, several problems would be eliminated, including the fact that the waiting times of Romanian transporters at the internal borders would notably be reduced.

The National Union of Road Transporters from Romania has called on several times the government of Romania to reduce the long waiting times at the borders, stressing that there are often long queues at the EU internal borders, including Giurgiu, Borș, Nădlac and EU external borders, such as Siret Porubne.

UNTRR has called on Romanian authorities to reduce the long waiting times at Romania’s borders with neighbouring countries, which cause difficulties for road carriers and disrupt the operation of all economic sectors served by carriers.

The Union has considered that giving priority at Romania’s external EU borders to trucks with processed customs documents – TIR/TIR EPD could minimise administrative burdens for carriers and customs authorities.

According to the UNTRR, dedicated use of border crossing points for trucks with TIR/transit customs processed documents and empty trucks could lead to an increase in the current border crossing capacity.

Among the measures to help reduce the long waiting times for trucks is also the modernisation of infrastructure at border crossing points with EU as well as non-EU countries, in order to increase the flow and also streamline traffic by expanding the number of control lanes for each direction of traffic, and also by creating appropriate parking spaces.

Remaining outside the Schengen Zone causes significant damage to road carriers, as emphasised continuously by the Union.

In April this year, UNTRR’s general secretary, Radu Dinescu, said the cost registered by road carriers increased to a total of €2.41 billion, accounting for a penalty of 25-30 per cent of the time lost.

The fact that we stayed outside the Schengen Zone keeps us with a penalty of 25-30 per cent of lost time. The closer you are to the western border, and you cross into Hungary and wait a day, the higher the percentage, the time you spend at the border crossing, out of the total operating time.

Dinescu

He emphasised that the crisis continues this year as well, taking into account the Mobility package that began affecting them more.