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Travelling East can be a nightmare of border delays, bad weather and unpredictable expenses. But a little knowledge, coupled with some bribery and corruption, can help to keep those trucks moving.
If anybody out there recalls with nostalgia the days when trucks were held up at the borders between West European countries for hours on end, then he should try trucking goods into the former Comecon countries.
There, border delays are pretty much guaranteed. East European bureaucracy is painfully sluggish and can add days to what is likely to be an incident-peppered trip.
"I've seen queues of trucks 20 to 30 miles long build up on the German/ Polish border at Frankfurt-an-der-Oder in less than a day, but all of the East European border crossings are pretty terrible." says David Croome, managing director of Croome International Transport of Queenborough in Kent.
-They're unpredictable too. Things may be very bad in one direction, and not too bad in the other," he continues. "Then the next day, the situation will reverse itself.
"Throw in a public holiday or two and you have a recipe for real chaos. And you receive no recompense for having your trucks just sitting there for 24 or 36 hours.
"What's more, customs clearance of the goods you are carrying can take anything from one to five days when you reach your destination."
Crossing into and out of Slovakia and the Czech Republic can take ages too, says Brian McCowan, transport manager at Towmac Transport of Bangor in Northern Ireland, another East European specialist. "It usually takes you one day going in, and one day coming out," he reports. "The crossing at Rozvadov, from Germany into the Czech Republic, is generally very slow, and so's the one at Zinnwald."
A row over the TIR carnet system has recently caused difficulties at the Russian border, with hauliers being forced to ensure that customs duty is paid in advance before their trucks are allowed into the country.
"We will have to live with it to get the vehicles through," says Gloucestershire operator Peter Gilder, one British haulier who has been affected.
Croome's trucks—all Volvos—do regular runs to Poland, Russia, the Ukraine, Lithuania and Latvia. His advice to drivers is that no matter how pressed for time they may be, they should take things slowly.
"The road surfaces tend to be diabolical and covered with potholes," he says. "It's bad in Poland. although Russia has a reasonable network of main roads between the Polish border and Moscow."
Snow, ice, and bitterly-cold weather during some months of the year can make things even worse. Trucks take a hammering, even if the drivers keep their speed down, and broken brake chambers and damaged spray suppression gear often need replacing. "That's a major bugbear," says Croome.
Damage can also be caused by the debris that's scattered across road surfaces in some places.
"Frankly, it can be a relief to be back into Germany," he says. "Once you're back across the German border and on the autobahn, you feel like you're floating on air.
"The roads in Croatia and Slovakia aren't very good, but at the end of the day you can't really say you're not going there until they build a proper motorway," says McCowan. "You just have to accept the situation."
Constant headache
Security is a constant headache. "We go out there in convoys of two, three or four vehicles at a time, and only park in secure compounds," says Croome.
"Don't go into a town centre and park near a hotel, because you'll be inviting trouble," he continues. "You may have no option of course if you need to find a phone—mobile phones are useless, even in Poland—but our drivers don't have that problem because all our vehicles have satellite communications.
"Nor should your drivers get out and wander around," he advises. "They should stay with the truck, get the job done, then get back home again.
They're not there to sightsee.
"People are aware that Western drivers often carry a fair amount of cash on them becalm there aren't ni.i places where you can use plastic," says one haulier, who asked not to be named. "Arrned robberies aren't exactly unknoWn." In Russia, there are police posteon the main roads every 10 to 20 miles or so, hut it's not safe to park next to them overnight, says Croome. "And if there is an incident, an you ask for police assistance, it's unlikely that you will get it," he adds.
"We advise our drivers to park at a border crossing wherever possible," says McGowan.
How about fuel? "It's not so much of a problem as it was, and the standard has improved dramatically in Poland," Croome reports. "Nowadays there are forecourts which will accept DKV cards. But things in Russia aren't so good, with limited fuelling facilities, and they almost all want paying in cash."
Does Croome's :-10-strong fleet carry man backloads? "Out of Russia the backloads are pretty negligible, but it gets a bit easier in Poland," he replies.
"That said, 5000 of the trucks I send out don't backload from the East, but pick up a load in Gennaty instead."
McCowan says there are plenty of backloads to be had in the Czech Republic, and adds that he's starting to find them in Slovakia too.
"I've built up a good contact in Bratislava," he says. "However, you should cost the job on the basis that you will be running back empty until you're in Germany again."
Russian connections
Pineland Haulage's 22 MANs run regularly to Russia, am] have found it difficult to obtain backloads in recent weeks, despite strong Russia t connections.
"The elections have made things difficult," says spokesman John Sargeant. "Nobody wants to bring anything in or take anything out."' Local representation is a key to success in this sector of the transport industry. "It seems to be a vital part of the equation," says Sargeant.
Pineland has a depot in Moscow, and is well-known fOr employing Russian drivers. The companyl stresses that this is not a costcutting exerciee —the drivers receive Western rates of pay, sind the arrangement complies with all relevMn European labour legislation.
The compaity argues that a Russian driver who knows the country is always going to cope with prdblems better than a Westerner who doesn't epeak the language, and isn't used to dealing with the country's arcane bureaucracy. Volvo's emergency rescue service covers Poland pretty comprehensively, says David Croome, but coverage in Russia is sketchy. The answer is to run new trucks that are
well-maintained, and employ drivers with initiative and some mechanical knowledge.
He doesn't send out a huge kit of parts and tools
with the vehicles. "Murphy's Law has a great influence over our business, and you can guarantee that you'll never give David Ritchie: the driver what he's going just to get you to need," says Croome.
But drivers are supplied with fuel filters and a selection of multi-purpose tools that will help them repair airlines in particular. If they can't solve the problem themselves, they can always get technical advice via satellite from base, and then a rescue party can be organised if all else fails.
Periodic hazard
Being pulled up by the police for a supposed "offence" is a periodic hazard. You can sometimes get away with just giving them a carton of cigarettes or maybe 20 Deutchsmarks," says one experienced driver.
Operating in Eastern Europe can be unpredictable in more ways than one, says David Ritchie, managing director of Elar International of Middlesbrough. He's just acquired six new 360hp Scan ia 113s, and runs regularly to Romania and Turkey.
On a recent return journey he was horrified to be handed an on-the-spot £400 fine by the Hungarian authorities for carrying more than the 200 litres allowed for transiting vehicles.
The limit was news to him, and to other operators as well; but it's something the Hungarians have suddenly decided to enforce. So he paid up, gritted his teeth, and drove on, But worse was to follow.
"When I got to Zeebrugge, I was fined £480 for having 110 litres of non-EU diesel in my tanks," he says. "When I protested and pointed out that I had entered the EU by way of Austria without any problems, I was told that was Austria—this is Belgium'."
However, that was nothing compared with the extreme difficulties experienced with a load of coffee he tried to take through Romania. The Romanians declared that coffee was bonded goods, and imposed a £300 fine. Two of Ritchie's trucks were then escorted to Bucharest, held until their visas ran out, and further fines were imposed for not having current visas, Ritchie has got used to paying £20 for police "overtime" whenever his trucks get to the Turkish border after 6pm. The Romanian overtime rate is £40.
"You can spend 1200 to £300 in backhanders just to get down the road," he says. "It's a bit difficult to offset this against tax, though. How can you tell the tax man we bunged £2,000 to the Romanian police'?"
by Steve Banner
If you're going to Eastern Europe...
Allow for long border delays—and they'll be worse if your paperwork isn't straight.
2. Make sure you're running modern trucks that are properly maintained. Use drivers with some mechanical knowledge, and kit them out with an emergency kit of spares and tools; the roadside rescue cavalry could be a long time coming. And ideally equip your vehicles with satellite communications gear.
3 Remember that the average speeds your vehicles will be able to maintain will be lower than in the West because the roads are so poor—and lower still in severe winter weather. If they're going East when there's a risk of icy cold temperatures, make sure they're equipped with thick winter clothing, blankets, and a supply of food.
4. Tell your drivers to be careful about where they park. Advise them to stop at a border crossing or at a secure compound if possible, and insist that they stay with your truck.
5 Accept "overtime" payments to border guards as a fact of life.
6. Be patient. A lexander Burman is all
too familiar with border delays in Eastern Europe. He's managing director of west London-based DarTrans, and his 40 trucks go regularly to Poland and Russia.
Polish-born himself, he's developed some insight into why things go so slowly at Polish border crossings.
"The customs aren't all that keen on doing a quick job," he says. "They go through every driver's papers very slowly in the hope that a gift of beer or cigarettes will encourage them to speed things up a little."
Matters aren't helped by the fact that there aren't enough parking bays at customs clearance to accommodate the number of trucks that have to wait there. The result is queues that stretch forever.
"It might help if there were separate lanes for vehicles transiting Poland to go to Russia," he suggests.
The road surfaces in Poland aren't improving, says Burman. "Polish tarmac is very slippery after a heavy rainfall—more so than tarmac on Western roads—and drivers who aren't aware of that end up having accidents," he remarks.
"The trouble is that drivers never slow down," he adds. "They know that if they're stopped for speeding, all they need to do is hand the police a bottle of vodka."