Romanian hauliers calling on Gov't to step up efforts for Romania's Schengen accession

The National Union of Romanian Hauliers (UNTRR) is calling on the government to speed up the country's Schengen accession process and simplify border crossing administrative procedures in order to cut the very long waiting times that severely disrupt the international operations of Romanian hauliers, Agerpres reports.

"On 07.06.2022, lorries were queuing for over 25 kilometres at the western borders of Romania (Nadlac 2, Bors and Petea crossing points). If Romania had been in the Schengen Area today, many of the current problems would have been axed and the border waiting times for Romanian carriers would have been significantly reduced," the industry association said in a release on Wednesday.

According to UNTRR, truck queues at Romania's eastern borders with the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine were even longer, with waiting times exceeding 30 hours.

"With non-EU countries, border congestion could be largely resolved by authorities simplifying administrative procedures," the statement said.

Also, the TIR system enabling the transit of goods across international borders without unloading and reloading, would minimize the hauliers' administrative and financial burdens related to customs clearance operations.

"Surveys by the International Road Transport Union (IRU) have shown that border crossing infrastructure is necessary but not sufficient for economic development, and delays at border crossing account for 39.7 percent of the total transport time, which is inadmissible in the European Economic Area," UNTRR representatives said.

According to the cited source, in absence of sufficient and well-trained personnel, time-consuming border crossing operations due to non-harmonised procedures that also encourage unofficial payments are a major cause of transport delays and the economy has to suffer.

Therefore, UNTRR is calling on the government to intensify steps for Romania's Schengen integration as soon as possible and for easing the administrative burden at the border crossing points.

The National Union of Romanian Hauliers (UNTRR) is an independent, apolitical, non-governmental professional employer organization founded in 1990 on democratic principles, which domestically and internationally promotes and defends the interests of road hauliers. UNTRR joins under its umbrella over 16,000 registered companies active in the domestic and international transport of goods and people.