Problems and Barriers Registered within Six Weeks of the NELTI Project Implementation

Practically from the first days of the implementation of carriages within the NELTI project, the carriers came up against various barriers and encountered a number of problems.

The NELTI project is a continuation of the IRU's consistent policy aimed to remove barriers in the area of international road transport haulage in the CIS region. It is intended to serve, on the one hand, as a test to show in practice the worse of the trouble spots along each of the Eurasian road transport routes and, on the other, as an instrument to remove these trouble spots by way of implementation of a Road Map that should be drawn up in spring 2009 on the basis of the results of the project's implementation.

This is going to be NELTI's most important mission, that is, preparing the ground and eliminate the obstacles in the way of mass-scale freight haulage by road transport that should be launched between China and Europe already in the nearest future.

As had been expected, the most serious problems and barriers have from the very outset of the NELTI project been revealed at the state border crossings, and the main source of the problems is partiality or overt corruption of customs services in letting vehicles pass through road transport checkpoints. Serious problems emerged on the way of carriers at the Russian-Latvian and Kyrgyz-Uzbek borders. But of special concern are the facts of violations at the border between the Republic of Kazakhstan and Republic of Uzbekistan.

Yet another set of problems concerns the issue of visas for professional drivers and also certain actions by border guard authorities and transport inspectorate.

All of these problems and barriers will be analyzed and summed up after the pilot stage of the NELTI project is finished in spring 2009.

Further below, this page will carry information and concrete facts concerning the actions that hamper road transport haulage between Europe and Asia as a whole, and the operation of individual drivers and road transport companies in particular. Publication of this information will serve as evidence of our resolve to fight all kinds of injustices and barriers in the area of road transport haulage.