Phone confiscation alert
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• Truck operators travelling into Russia are being warned that their mobile telephones may be confiscated by Russian border police.
The International Road Transport Union says it has heard "semi-official" reports that drivers, after long delays, are being asked to pay arbitrary payments to police in order to get the phones back.
Mike Freeman, of the Road Haulage Association's International Department, is unclear how many UK operators have been affected or why the phones are being taken. The scheme smacks of "another attempt to get money from drivers", he says.
Freeman advises UK operators who want their drivers to have mobile phones to: • apply for a certificate (valid for a year) from the Russian partner of their local service provider before entering Russia; • inform the authorities responsible for telecommunications, requesting that they intervene with CEPT (the international telecommunications body).
The IRU is talking to its Russian member body ASMAP and the Russian police to solve the problem.