Oleg Tofilat
According to Oleg Tofilat, executive director of the Union of Transport and Road Builders, in recent years Moldovan carriers have significantly lost their positions on foreign markets.
“If you remember, our trucks once traveled all over the Union and all over Europe. Now there are probably four times fewer of our trucks in international transportation – because of various international agreements, permits and restrictions on market access. There are fewer drivers, it is harder to buy new trucks, but the biggest problem is access to the market, which has become much smaller in this so-called liberal world,” Tofilat emphasized.
According to him, while in the past it was enough for a carrier to find a client and send a truck on a trip, today the key factor is not logistics, but the availability of special permits, which are chronically lacking.
“Now it is not enough that you have found a client – you must have special permits. And special permits are scarce. If you don’t have one, there is no point in going somewhere.”
The expert noted that because of the uncertainty with permits, carriers are not ready to invest in fleet renewal:
“You buy new trucks, but you don’t know if you will get a permit for them. They can just stand in the garage, not earning a penny, while you continue to pay leasing, insurance and drivers’ salaries”.
That said, he believes transportation can be a generator of economic growth and service exports:
“And it is especially important to understand that artificial intelligence is unlikely to replace transportation. If we invest in the development of transport (and we have good resources to create a strong transport sector), we will benefit from it, especially now, when the demand for mobility and the demand for transportation is growing worldwide,” Tofilat believes.
For this to happen, Moldova needs to press for full market access.
“If we were more thorough in demanding from the European Union, maybe we would have better…”.
