Beneath Brussels’ sanctions in opposition to Tehran, most of some 60,000 Iranian truckers who traverse Europe’s roads every month to transit varied items both misplaced their jobs or have been hit onerous by paying exorbitant charges for crossing into the bloc.
The imposition of a state insurance coverage embargo on Iran by EU member states has added to the issue of acquiring visas for Iranian truck drivers traversing European routes — a lot in order that their jobs, which had been on the decline because the starting of final 12 months, virtually grew to become extinct.
Whereas Germany and Italy had been Iranian drivers’ solely hope for visas for some time, Ali Mahmoudi Sarai, the chairman of the board of administrators of the Iranian Transport and Logistics Federation, mentioned that each nations have severely restricted visa issuance and that the minimal ready time for visas has now reached greater than three months.
France, in the meantime, stopped issuing permits for Iranian drivers and their vans altogether originally of 2023.
A 12 months in the past, a gaggle of Iranian drivers wrote in a letter to the Iranian Street Transport Authority that “visas can now not be obtained from embassies with out the presence of speculators” — third-party intermediaries making an enormous revenue from the method.
Nevertheless, the issue with Iranian vans isn’t simply drivers getting their visas. In line with Sarai, the imposition of EU sanctions in opposition to Iran began a number of months in the past within the case of Inexperienced Card insurance coverage as properly.
The Inexperienced Card is a world third-party insurance coverage system for street accident and damage safety. It was first established in 1949, and Tehran joined within the Seventies.
In Iran, Central Insurance coverage, which is state-owned, delegated the license to situation to Iran Insurance coverage, one other state-owned insurance coverage firm.
As even stronger sanctions in opposition to Iranian banks and state insurers started to be carried out, it grew to become nearly unattainable to situation inexperienced insurance coverage from early 2024.
Though Iran has begun efforts to create a personal insurance coverage firm to raise Iran’s suspension from the Inexperienced Card Coordinated Insurance coverage System Conference, it has to this point not succeeded.
Why are so few Iranian vans nonetheless seen on Europe’s roads?
Whereas some Iranian drivers working on the European transit line nonetheless have legitimate unexpired visas and a few nonetheless handle to acquire visas after lengthy waits — from Italy and Germany, as an illustration — few have legitimate inexperienced insurance coverage.
Inexperienced insurance coverage is issued on an annual, quarterly, and single-trip foundation, relying on the kind of truck buy.
So there are nonetheless vans whose insurance coverage validity has not but expired and may subsequently journey on European roads, whereas some Iranian drivers who don’t have a visa drawback purchase their insurance coverage from a 3rd nation.
However in keeping with Sarai, Iranian vans are insured by means of intermediaries and speculators at Bulgaria’s border at thrice the traditional value.
Mohammad Eigharlou, secretary normal of the identical organisation, has additionally advised Iranian media that many drivers are resorting to seeing insurance coverage insurance policies from Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey.
Who advantages from the absence of Iranian drivers?
Transport trade activists in Iran say that Iran’s share in street transit is now being dwarfed by vans from Turkey, Georgia and Greece.
“Turkish vans have taken the place of Iranian vans on European routes, and transit load on the European route is being shifted with Turkish vans,” Sarai advised Iranian media.
Reza Rostami, chairman of the Transport, Transit, and Logistics Fee of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, mentioned that “baggage homeowners favor to make use of overseas vans and overseas drivers in Turkey, Georgia and so forth to move cargo as a result of these drivers come to Iran underneath the duvet of inexperienced insurance coverage and decrease prices are imposed on the cargo proprietor, however the consequence is unemployment of Iranian truck drivers.”
The crunch dealing with Iranian truckers just isn’t confined to the EU. As Sarai mentioned, “At present, there are only a few drivers working on Russian roads — solely refrigerated vans.”
“Even the visas of nations with higher relations with Iran, resembling Russia and Belarus, should not dealt with straight by corporations and will undoubtedly be utilized for by visa speculators,” Iranian drivers wrote in final 12 months’s letter.
Sarai introduced the imposition of latest EU sanctions in opposition to Iran final Tuesday in a dialog with the ILNA information company, and introduced that the loading of 182 European items on Iranian vans has been banned underneath the brand new sanctions.