The blocking of truck traffic on the Polish-Ukrainian border by Polish carriers has a political component, and one day of unnecessary downtime at the border costs Ukrainian carriers at least EUR 300.
Volodymyr Balin, vice president of the Association of International Road Carriers of Ukraine (AsMAP), announced this in a statement, the CFTS portal reports, citing Ukrainian Radio.
"Poland’s Confederation party, which supports this strike - and, by the way, supported the strikes of both carriers and farmers this year - is anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian. The trucks blocking the border came from Biała Podlaska (a city in eastern Poland), and these carriers used to work on the Belarusian and Russian markets. Today, this opportunity has been lost. They did not adapt their vehicles to the European markets and decided to block the border," he said.
Balin stressed that no state association of Polish carriers officially supported the strike.
"Most of the real Polish companies have 300,000 vehicles today. They have contracts and European markets. They are interested in the Ukrainian market in terms of transportation. Furthermore, they are interested in the absence of congestion at the border, as well as in good roads. But at the moment we are at war, and they understand that. If before the war, Polish carriers accounted for 35% of the transport volume on the Ukrainian-Polish market, today they account for only 10%. It is a security problem. Today, all export-import operations carried out by road have practically stopped," Balin added.
Polish carriers have been blocking truck traffic at three checkpoints on the Polish-Ukrainian border for more than a week. According to Balin, Ukrainian carriers have lost at least EUR 300 for every day of unnecessary downtime.
According to official figures from the Ministry of Infrastructure, some 20,000 vehicles are currently standing idle.
"The Chamber of Commerce and Industry is currently calculating the losses of exporters, importers, and transporters, and it is more professional in this regard. However, if we are talking about direct losses, i.e., the lost profit of carriers, I think it is at least EUR 100 per day. This is because if this force majeure - this strike - had not occurred, an additional day of downtime in any other case is EUR 100, as a rule, when a carrier bills a regular customer," Balin said.
