Due to new corona measures for professional goods transport, kilometers of traffic jams and hundreds of drivers came to a standstill at various European borders on Monday. TLN wants the EU to intervene and ensure the smooth passage of international freight traffic. Last weekend, Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria suddenly announced separate testing obligations and additional checks for freight traffic. This immediately led to congestion.
Fillet
On Monday morning, there were traffic jams of tens of kilometers at the Italian border crossing Brenner and at the German-Czech border. From this weekend, all drivers driving to or via Germany must show a negative corona test if they come from Tyrol, the Czech Republic or Slovakia. Austria then decided to ban drivers without a negative test result from the Italian border. However, at the border posts there are hardly any test locations that drivers can use, so they have nowhere to go and stand still for hours.
Green Lanes
To guarantee the smooth passage of freight transport, the European Commission adopted a number of rules last year, such as setting up Green Lanes. Although Member States have complied with these rules for a long time, several countries are now taking matters into their own hands again and imposing additional measures on freight traffic.
Chaos again
TLN chairman Elisabeth Post: “We have apparently learned nothing from the situation of last year, when thousands of trucks were stationary all over Europe. International freight transport is indispensable for the supply of our shops, pharmacies and hospitals. That is why freight traffic must be able to continue unhindered as much as possible. Public health is the number one priority in the fight against the coronavirus. But it cannot be that countries suddenly close their borders or take various corona measures and trucks come to a standstill en masse. The EU must intervene now and work with Member States to ensure that freight transport can continue unhindered ”.
Important transport route
More than 7000 trucks transport goods every day on the North-South corridor through Tyrol, about the same as on the Dover-Calais corridor, which was chaotic in December when France imposed restrictions on freight traffic. More than tens of thousands of trucks use the east-west corridor to Germany via the Czech Republic, an important transport route for logistics in Central Europe. TLN reports this on their website.
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