Improving Road Freight Transport
119
systems be abolished for international freight operators and be replaced by freedom for traders to contract with any licensed operator.
Quota Systems Quota systems that restrict free contracting should be abolished. However, their short-term continuation could give road freight operators in small LLDCs time to prepare for greater competition from operators. Therefore, quotas should be allowed to continue where they can be expected to have short-term restructuring benefits, but any such continuation should be time bound to less than five years. Continuing quota systems should only be used to guarantee minimum market share for each country, not to limit volume of trade. Minimum quotas for each country are preferable instead of trying to control total road freight by quotas. Such systems can issue a fixed number of quotas for each country (enough to ensure viability of the industry), with any additional road transport being open to companies in either country (or even from third countries to better comply with WTO requirements).
Procedures for Moving Trucks Across Borders Truck specifications and vehicle insurance requirements should be made compatible between LLDCs and their transit neighbors. Once this is achieved, the only necessary restriction on trucks crossing borders would be a verification of their documents.
Procedures for Moving Drivers Across Borders The recommendation in respect to commercial drivers is that multiple entry visas, valid for at least one year, should be used where single entry visas are now required. Multiple entry visas would not impose any security or commercial threat to the country issuing them, but would facilitate bilateral transport movements. Where both the LLDC and transit country are members of a regional regime, the use of driver carnets would be even more efficient that multiple entry visas.
Facilitating Truck Transit To facilitate the movement of transit trucks through transit countries, two areas are recommended for change: checks on overloading and informal checks on transit trucks. The recommendation with respect to checks on overloading of transit vehicles and charging for use of roads is that both need only be made at borders for exports from LLDCs and at ports for trucks transporting their