The total costs registered by road carriers amount to 2.41 billion EUR because Romania remained outside the Schengen area, registering a penalty of 25-30pct of the time lost, secretary general of the National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania (UNTRR) Radu Dinescu told a specialized conference on Monday, write Agerpres.

„The fact that we remained outside Schengen keeps us a penalty of 25-30pct of lost time. The closer you are to the western border and you cross into Hungary and wait a day, the higher the percentage, the time you spend crossing of the border, from the total operating time, is higher. We estimated some total costs of 2.41 billion EUR in losses because Romania did not enter Schengen,” Dinescu mentioned at the ZF Logistica, Transporturi & Automotive Conference.

According to him, the drivers’ crisis continues this year as well, there are certain measures, including in the Mobility package, which have begun to affect them more and more.

„In terms of returning the truck home, for example, once every eight weeks. I did a recent study two weeks ago and I’m telling you that 40pct of companies can’t return their trucks home, and 35pct that do return their trucks home, well, they do it without freight. Thus, all of a sudden, we’re penalized fantastically in terms of efficiency compared to our peers in Western Europe,” he explained.

Referring to the road transport industry in Romania, he emphasized that Romania’s transport market ranks 7th in the European Union. At the same time, the UNTRR representative says that the volumes of goods transported by road will double by 2050, according to estimates.