Some 2,000 trucks stuck on Lithuanian-Belarusian border – association

VILNIUS – Almost 2,000 trucks are stuck on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border due to a failure of servers and information systems, the national road carriers' association LINAVA says.

Speaking with BNS, Vitas Volungevicius, head f the communication division at Lithuania's Customs Department, confirmed the fact that the system was down, adding, however, that it is expected to be fixed by Wednesday night.

LINAVA President Romas Austinskas says neither Lithuanian nor foreign haulers can cross the Lithuanian-Belarusian border for a second day.

"Cargoes include perishable goods, like, food, and other important cargoes for the economy and trade. The problem of empty trucks is also not being resolved, they cannot cross the border as well. Due to the queues near border checkpoints, drivers are suffering the most as they cannot return home, cannot eat and go to the toilet like normal people as they are forced to wait," he said in a statement.

The spokesman for the Customs Department says truck movement has slowed as due to a technical problem their declarations are submitted in the paper form, not electronically.

"We have a server problem and specialists of the Custom's information system center are eliminating it. They will try to do that by the end of the working day but the Customs is working and declarations are being accepted in the paper form," Volungevicius said.

Oleg Tarasov, a member of LINAVA's presidium and chairman of the committee for ties with foreign countries, says a day of downtime costs 300 euro for one truck.