Road Transport

Corridor Performance

CPMM data relate to commercial shipments that move through the CAREC countries. Although most of these shipments originate or end in the 11 member countries, some are destined for, start in, or transit countries beyond the program region, including Iran, the Russian Federation, and Türkiye. Others are bound for or sourced in more distant regions, mainly Europe.

This chapter uses 2022 CPMM data to profile cargo movements in each CAREC member country. As previous reports have shown, the shipping routes and the types of cargo shipped do not vary significantly from one year to the next. The products shipped are mainly staple items, and they are sent over established channels.

Shipments by Road

The TFI results for road transport all improved in 2022. The average border-crossing time and cost decreased. The total cost of transport fell. SWOD and SWD rose.

 The TFI data for road transport in 2022 are summarized in Table 2.1. Results for the TFIs by corridor are provided in Appendix 6.

Table 2.1: Trade Facilitation Indicators—Road, 2021 and 2022

( ) = negative value, CAREC = Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation, km = kilometer, km/h = kilometers per hour, SWOD = speed without delay, TFI = trade facilitation indicator. TFI = trade facilitation indicator.

^a Total cost estimates are derived by summing fees and payments for each border-crossing activity at the BCP. “Tea money” or “facilitation fees” beyond the official amount to be paid are included.

Source: Asian Development Bank.

Trade Facilitation Indicator 1: Average Border-Crossing Time

The average reported border-crossing time shortened across all the corridors and was down 27.2% from 2021. Most CAREC countries relaxed their strict COVID-19 epidemiological border controls during 2022, and the PRC eventually followed at the end of the year.

Despite the overall improvement, the crossing times at some BCPs indicated severe problems. The BCP pair at Alashankou–Dostyk on the PRC–Kazakhstan border, which is primarily a rail crossing, reported the longest crossing times even though it had not surfaced as a problem location prior to 2022. The crossing times averaged 81.3 hours at Alashankou on the PRC side, and 20.7 hours at Dostyk in Kazakhstan. For outbound traffic, the time-consuming BCPs were Chaman (54.0 hours) and Torugart (50.1 hours), Karasu (42.7 hours), Farap (26.7 hours) and Tsiteli Khidi (24.2 hours). Shipments took 2 days to complete customs controls at Chaman. Long waiting times and queues were issues at all these BCPs. The most time-consuming BCPs for incoming traffic were Torkham (15.6 hours) and Yarant (11.5 hours), where vehicles faced long waits in line before undergoing customs procedures and health inspections.

Data suggest that the Russo–Ukraine war has driven up crossing times at BCPs in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Türkiye, which rose during 2022. It took 21 hours on average to cross each BCP at Sarp and Sarpi, and 24 hours on each side at Tsiteli Khidi and Krasnyi Most. There was an influx of trucks to the Trans-Caspian International Route (TITR)—also known as the Middle Corridor—after Ukraine was invaded in February 2022. Some trans-Eurasia shippers and transport operators who normally used the CAREC routes that link with the Northern Route through the Russian Federation and/or pass through Ukraine have been compelled by the fighting and international sanctions on the Russian Federation to divert freight traffic to the TITR. This inevitably lengthened the waits and processing times at these BCPs.

Trade Facilitation Indicator 2: Average Border-Crossing Cost

The average cost to cross a border was 41.7% lower in 2022 than in 2021. Fees dropped along all six CAREC corridors.

The PRC BCPs  had the highest fees. In terms of inbound traffic, the costliest were Horgos ($1,861), Takeshikent ($1,300), and Alashankou ($638). For the outbound direction, the costliest BCPs were Dostyk ($4,499), Nur Zholy ($1,326), and Yarant ($198).  A BCP’s fee often reflects the volume of traffic it handles and border management procedures limiting the number of participating carriers. For example, Horgos is the busiest land border crossing point in the region. It can command the highest fees because it is on the shortest route between Urumqi and Almaty, and one of the key nodes in the bilateral and transit trade between the PRC and Kazakhstan. The Urumqi–Almaty route via the Alashankou BCP is longer, lesser usage is one reason why its border-crossing fee is lower.

Fee reporting at a BCP is based on the sum of the charges imposed by each of the border agencies and the service providers. The single most expensive road activity is the loading and unloading of goods required at a BCP when a foreign truck is not permitted to cross the border. The goods must then be transferred to a carrier authorized by the inbound country.. Additional costs are also incurred when goods must be unloaded and placed in temporary storage at a bonded warehouse. Fees charged by customs for processing declarations and documentation are the next most expensive item, and they do not cover the additional outlay that arises if a Customs officer assigns a shipment to a red channel. This can be very costly, since the transport operator must pay for unloading and reloading the goods, as well as the physical examination itself.

Other additional costs can include those for transporting heavy machinery and bulky equipment along Corridor 2. The shippers of such items must pay for a customs escort and moving the shipment in a special convoy. These heavy and large shipments, which generally come from Europe and arrive through Georgia’s port at Poti for onward transport on CAREC Corridor 2, can pose a safety hazard and require a special license and customs supervision along the way.

The fees charged at BCPs can also depend on the nature of the goods and the experience of the shipper, transport operator, and/or customs broker. In addition to official border crossing fees, -unofficial payments, sometimes referred to as “tea money” and commonly called “facilitation fees” in Central Asia, are also included in reporting CPMM border crossing costs. Such payments are often paid to border crossing officers or through customs brokers acting as intermediaries, are required to expedite the movement of cargo through truck queues, and for the clearance or release of goods.

Trade Facilitation Indicator 3: Total Transport Cost

Total transport cost stood at $945 in 2022, down about 25% from 2021. This was in line with the general falloff in global rates for shipping ocean containers from their peak in 2021.

The TFI 3 decline was not uniform. There were sizeable reductions along Corridors 1 and 4, but costs rose on Corridors 2 and 3. While it is difficult to prove, CPMM partners said that this unusual divergence might be due to a shift in traffic to the TITR along Corridor 2 from Corridor 1 along which most shipments pass to and from the Russian Federation. The longer BCP crossing times in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Türkiye provide some support for this hypothesis.

Trade Facilitation Indicator 4: Speed to Travel on CAREC Corridors

SWOD and SWD both increased in 2022, although only slightly. Corridor 1 remained the fastest corridor, with SWOD estimated at 63.6 km/h. Its much lower SWD (23.4 km/h) was due to the long border-crossing times at Horgos–Nur Zholy and Alashankou–Dostyk. Corridor 5 was the slowest corridor in 2022, with SWOD and SWD estimated to be 25.6 km/h and 12.5 km/h, respectively.