Border controls because of the refugee crisis
Considerable delays due to traffic - millions worth of damage threatens
Rainer Will, CEO of the Austrian trade association, reports: “Over the past couple of days, it came to considerable traffic-induced delays, mainly on the borders from Salzburg to Germany and Hungary to Burgenland. On the night of Monday to Tuesday, the logistics specialist “Gebrüder Weiss”, partners of the trade association, reported to us about delays of two to four hours at the borders Nickelsdorf, Walserberg and Stuben.
The delays are even longer in Hungarian freight traffic. “On the Hungarian borders to Serbia and Slovakia, waiting times were as long as between four and eight hours”, says Will. “The traffic jam in the direction of Hungary was 50 kilometers long at times. There are unfortunately hardly any bypass roads. Because of this situation, the runtimes are fluctuating irregularly, and we should count on delays in land traffic. “ Furthermore, says the CEO of the trading association, the longer transport times could lead to a reduction in loading space.
Things could get expensive for the freight economy if this situation were to persist for a longer time, Rainer Will explains. “If the situation remains as it is, it will increasingly come to delivery delays and as a result, penalty payments for companies. Long delays are a huge problem for food transport and “Just-in-time” deliveries. Drivers have a harder time complying with resting times because of longer traffic jams.” According to the CEO, the damage can hardly be estimated. The Austrian Transportwirtschaft named a sum of 2.5 million Euro per day.
Rainer Will
Handelsverband
Alser Straße 45, 1080 Wien
T +43 (1) 406 22 36 77
andreas.weigl@handelsverband.at
www.handelsverband.at