Road Transport knows no borders

The international truck caravan with the slogan "From Beijing to Brussels, road transport drives progress" arrived in Moscow on 7 October.

Moscow - The truck caravan started in Beijing on 27 September at the 3rd IRU Euro-Asia Road Transport Conference "Road transport, Bridging Asia and Europe". The caravan was greeted in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, on 30 September. Today it has been greeted in Moscow.

One of the priorities of Russian transport development consists of using its transit potential. In accordance with the Transport Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020 transit traffic should account for between 90 and 100 billion tonnes per year. In 2004 international goods transport by road ensured 26.4 % of foreign trade operations as a whole. Delivery of goods from the Asia-Pacific region to Europe by land road transport, exemplified by the international truck caravan, is consistent with the Russian transport industry goal of creating and developing transit corridors that complement main international transport corridors. This factor determined the decision taken by the Russian Association of International Carriers (ASMAP), bringing together more than 3000 companies and organisations, to participate in the caravan.

Mr I. Levitin, Russian Minister of Transport, greeting the caravan participants, thanked the International Road Transport Union for drawing attention of the international community to the national transit capabilities of the Eurasian continent as well as for its considerable contribution to the development of East-West road transport.

At the press conference on the occasion of the caravan arrival in Moscow Mr E. Moskvichev, Director, Road and Municipal Passenger Transport Policy Department, Russian Ministry of Transport, said: "This caravan is just a start of creating an Asia - Europe land bridge. We will have to address Customs and legal issues, develop infrastructure and work along these lines".

At the round table on using Russian transit potential within the framework of freight transport by road between China and Europe held the same day when the truck caravan arrived in Moscow, Mr I. Rounov, IRU General Delegate to the CIS, referring to the freight delivery from Asia to Europe, emphasized the irrefutable competitive advantages of road transport in terms of delivery speed and possibility of "door-to-door" delivery.
Mr Y. Sukhin, President, Russian Association of International Carriers, reported average speed of freight delivery by different means of transport: 4 km/h by sea, 8 km/h by rail and 16 km/h by road.

The goal of the Beijing - Brussels international caravan and the International Road Transport Union that brings together road transport operators from more than 70 countries of the world is to urge international business community to make more use of road transport for freight carriage between Asia and Europe.