Poland/Ukraine – Before it was the farmers, and now it is the Polish lorry drivers who feel that they are being subjected to unfair competition from their Ukrainian colleagues. The money.pl website quotes one of them as explaining: “Polish farmers are afraid of [Ukrainian] cheap grain, and we’re afraid of Ukrainian transport. We’ve been flooded by their lorries.” The Polish transport industry fears that it, too, will have to fight a battle on unequal terms with Ukrainian companies. The situation has deteriorated over the past several weeks, and a blockade has been put in place on the Polish side of the border.
Minimum 12 days of waiting to return from Ukraine to Poland…
In addition to the price war is the fact that the e-Czerga electronic queuing system at the border on the Ukrainian side keeps Polish trucks waiting for at least 12 days before they are allowed to cross the border back into Poland, a delay that does not occur going in the other direction. In practice, Polish lorry drivers register immediately on entering Ukraine, but since their journey there does not usually last 12 days, they are reduced to spending the rest of that time waiting in a parking lot.
Blockade of Dorohusk, Hrebenne, and Korczowa border crossings
The Polish lorry drivers therefore decided to respond by blocking Ukrainian lorries from leaving Poland at the border crossings of Dorohusk, Hrebenne, and Korczowa, allowing only one lorry to pass through per hour. They especially demand the introduction of commercial licenses for Ukrainian companies to transport goods, except for humanitarian aid and supplies for the Ukrainian army, and the suspension of licenses for those companies that were set up after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, as well as their inspection. They are also calling for the suppression of the electronic queuing system on the Ukrainian side.”
