Bulgarian trucks wait for hours at the borders, while buses carrying mostly Ukrainian tourists cross in a matter of minutes. This is what the owner of a trucking business, which takes goods out of the country, reported. His observations were both for our border with Turkey and for the one with Romania. He gave an example to a journalist of Iskra.bg:
“At 09:00 a.m. on June 15, my refrigerated truck was waiting to cross the border. By 6:00 p.m., the driver didn’t make it. During this period, 36 buses arrived and they were given priority to cross. At the same time, Bulgarians driving trucks, who develop trade and contribute to the country, stood at the border and waited.“
The businessman shared information about another situation:
„The incident happened last week – they put a ban on crossing the border during the day. The truck was first in line at 6:00 p.m. At 10:00 p.m., they opened the checkpoint for trucks, but it managed to get through at 05:45.”
The entrepreneur resents that a business that drives the economy has to wait for hours. According to him, there was an unspoken order for tourists to go through a relaxed regime and less control.
We would like to remind you that 2 weeks ago, 3 new specialised entry routes for trucks were officially opened at the Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint. 2 of them are fully equipped for cargo vehicles with goods subject to official control, and one is for oversized cargo. The goal is to reduce the wait to 8 hours. According to the latest data, in 2022 nearly 1 million cargo vehicles passed through the Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint.
Meanwhile, over the past few months, inspections by joint teams of the Ministry of Tourism, the Commission for Consumer Protection and the the Ministry of Interior started checking for „illegal excursions“ at the Capitan Andreevo, Malko Tarnovo and Lesovo checkoints. During individual inspections, various violations were found. This shows that the control there should be tightened and the representatives of the freight transport business are right that they need lighter and faster procedures.
