Freight carrier: Unscrupulous people made money out of BelToll system

Transport operators are trying to find agreement with officials concerning an amnesty on fines handed by BelToll system.

Despite the fact that on the day before the protest rally planned for February 4, its initiator Syarhei Shtoda was detained and convicted, today his colleague Aleh Novikau came for a reception to the Council of Ministers. Businessmen consider that the huge fines are unjustified, and as a result of “an experiment” several thousands of freight carriers received bills for sums up to 100,000 Euro, Radio Svaboda informs.

Before the meeting with officials, Aleh Novikau named the main claims to the relevant agencies, responsible for use of toll roads.

“We have already heard too many promises: prepare explanations, send them somewhere, we are going to see into the matter,” he said. “Well, we visited them, we listened to these words several times. And they do not deny that they had not helped us to solve the problem, at least they made it clear that they were going to wash away guilt, maybe partially. No matter which way you look at it, no doubt that unscrupulous people used the system on the sly. But if people who managed to cash in on it should be found, it does not concern everyone, it’s just a certain category of people.

For example, the greatest problems we had when heavyweights were given onboard units and for reasons unknown an error occurs in the number of axels. And consequently, the payment is different: for example, I have 5 axels, and the payment is calculated for 2 axels, that is, the sum is 4-5 times less. And after that sanctions follow. Just imagine: a driver does not have a higher education. And even if he has, he had seen that device for the first time the day before. He gave the unit to a girl, an operator. She does not know much either. In the beginning they could not give any advice at all, their answers were nonsense. That’s all. And finally, people had to pay huge fines, which have grown so high.

Notably, we were paying them. We do not have a negative balance over that month. You see, if I used the roads for a sum equal to a million, it means that I will pay a million. But that doesn’t suit them. They look at every single moment separately. You should have at least 25 Euro at your account. Who has decided that? In reality, there is a little paragraph: an operator [of the toll road system] has a right to transfer all free cash to a deposit, and all revenues are owned by the Republic of Belarus. That means, guys you are giving money, and we are going to share them. Do you remember the reports that 200,000 freight carriers had been registered in the BelToll system? Multiply that by 25 Euro and look how much it is. It means a credit of €5 million! It is not easy to find a credit of 5€ anywhere. That’s the answer. They are “smart”, and we have to pay for that. That’s the way things are…”

We remind that in 2013 a toll road system was introduced in Belarus. Even at the stage of implementation of the project, the Transport Ministry offered an Austrian investor to start using the system in a test mode simultaneously. Freight carriers were obliged to install an onboard unit, but no one taught drivers to use them, no one cared to build stations were money could be added to one’s account, and so on. As a result, thousands of trucks continued to use toll roads, while owners were unaware there were some violations. When fines were started to be handed, freight carriers offered relevant ministries to amnesty them for at least the testing period. But officials showed no interest.