According to Total News, citing the public relations of the Trade Union of International Transport Companies of Iran, Alireza Asadzadeh said in a two-day meeting that was hosted by many members of the board of directors of the association to Bazargan border, that the daily traffic statistics of trucks are reported moment by moment to the Head of Iran Customs, and he personally follows up on resolving the issue.
Asadzadeh mentioned the meeting with Mostafa Gonash, the general supervisor of Turkish customs, in order to solve the border problems of the merchants, and said, in this meeting, the latest necessary solutions to reduce truck congestion at the border were discussed. It was decided to reopen one of the doors closed by the Turkish side for 10 days. Until the end of operation of Gorblakh border terminal, Iran should use the capacity of other customs such as Sero, Razi and Poldasht customs to reduce the traffic load.
He also announced the assistance of Turkish customs to increase the manpower at the border customs and added, another existing problem, the congestion of trucks at the border, is due to the lack of manpower on the Turkish side, while Iran’s customs has four 8-hour shifts. It is providing service to the recipients without interruption. Based on this, it was decided that the Turkish side should also improve its efficiency in providing service by increasing its manpower, while increasing work shifts.
In the continuation of the meeting, Mir Fathali Seyed Zenozi, the vice president of the Trade Union of International Transport Companies of Iran, while thanking the Customs for its round-the-clock efforts, expressed the determination of the Customs to facilitate the passage of trucks.
He pointed out the problem of getting drivers’ visas and their green insurance and said, forming a fifteen-day queue at the border causes the loss of a service in the transportation cycle, and this means that the power of the fleet will be reduced by half and it will increase the cost for the carrier companies.
Seyed Zenozi added, Iran Association, as one of the powerful arms of the customs, is ready to follow up the problems that exist on the way of the customs with other neighboring organizations to solve the problem of border traffic, until the result is achieved.
In this two-hour meeting, Ghorban Jafarzadegan, the secretary of the Iran Association, while appreciating the will of Bazargan Customs to speed up the process of reducing truck congestion in the past few days, said, the fact that the number of exits and entries has increased significantly over the past few days shows that is due to the efforts of the customs that it seems that with the continuation of the plans, this amount will increase significantly in the near future.
He also requested to equip other customs offices and added, in order to reduce the existing traffic, the border customs offices should be equipped with the necessary equipment, so that trucks carrying goods that require quarantine and health permits do not stop at those customs offices.
Jafarzadegan further added, another problem at Bazargan border is the security of the parking lot, which, unfortunately, is isolated and not enclosed, causing trouble for drivers and abuse by profiteers. Unfortunately, it is not clear whether the responsibility of providing security lies with the customs agents or the road organization based at the border. Therefore, it is appropriate to take urgent action on this issue by the organization in charge.
Behnam Faramarzian, the Director of Tir Carnet of Iran Chamber of Commerce, who was one of the other guests of the meeting, also expressed his concern about the double inspections that are carried out at the border and said, according to the customs statistics, since the beginning of the year, the drugs discovered by Iran was close to two people and human trafficking was close to 2 thousand people, and none of the trucks were under the direction of Tir. Therefore, it is necessary to talk with the Turkish side in the upcoming negotiations about this issue and crediting the trucks carrying beams.
He said, the correct implementation of the Tir Convention will also reduce the traffic on the border, on the basis of which we demand the removal of additional formalities and double declaration at the entry borders.
Farmarzian further announced the removal of the physical card from the end of this year and said, it is necessary to create the necessary forecasts and infrastructure in terms of software in the customs from now on and think of a solution for it, because this issue is on the agenda of Ebro and its implementation is certain.
It should be noted that in this meeting, Mohammad Adadian, a member of the board of directors of the Iran Association, and Reza Irani, a representative of the association based in Bazargan, each presented their points of view regarding the problems.