Spinu Replies to the Carriers: Let It Be Clear to Everyone: It’s Not Going to Work that Way!

Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Andrei Spinu reacted sharply to the protest of haulers held today outside the government building. In a public message, Spinu stated that he was referring to those companies that “subjugated road transport” through fraud and want the situation in the sector to remain unchanged, thus harming the interests of passengers. The official emphasized that the amendments to the Road Transport Code would be adopted despite all the complaints. “I have been closely following the messages sent by some haulers who, during Plahotniuc’s time, subjugated road transport by fraudulently obtaining permits and legislative amendments suitable for them. I have heard nothing about how they want to change the situation for the better in road passenger transport system apart from lies and silly accusations. Let’s break it down one by one. To make it clear to people what the situation with road transport is: insufficient routes in those settlements where people, primars ask for them; minibuses and old buses endangering the life and health of passengers; lack of accounting, tax evasion - people do not get tickets for travelling by road. What do these protesting carriers propose? They have only one proposal - to leave everything as it is. They want to demand money from drivers every day because they give them that paper/driving license. They don’t want to invest in more modern transport. They don’t want to keep to the schedule of routes they have a permit for. They don’t want to issue tickets to passengers. They don’t want to open new routes even where the public and the local administration ask for it. Let it be clear to everyone: it’s not going to work that way! We will promote changes to the Road Transport Code, because these changes will provide people with better and more modern transport,” Spinu stressed in his message. The Minister of Infrastructure listed the main proposals by the authorities to improve the situation in this sector. Among them: intervention of the local administration in the process of opening and changing a new regular route, bureaucracy reduction, taxation of the ticket issuing process, etc. “We are removing time restrictions both at the level of international transport and reducing the interval to 15 minutes for travelling at the national level. Until now, it has been almost impossible for a new transport operator to start providing such services. We are helping city halls and primars to provide transport for residents. Local authorities will be able to intervene in the process of opening and changing a new regular route. It is crucial that local authorities play an active role in the decision-making process, as they have the most up-to-date information on residents’ flows and know people’s demands best. We remove red tape. Road haulers can say goodbye to the waybill, as it is excluded from the list of documents for strict record keeping. And in order to further reduce bureaucracy, a number of documents that already exist in the information systems of the National Road Transport Agency (information on technical inspection, certificates of professional competence) will be excluded from the list of documents a driver must have. We are taxing and digitizing road transport: e-tickets, e-GPS and e-routes. We tax the process of issuing a travel ticket, tickets will be issued in the form of a tax receipt or electronic document. We will make sure this operates by the end of 2024. We are resolving existing controversies about the timing and method of issuing authorizations. On the expiry of the 8-year authorization period, road transport operators will be able to work for another 4 years - if they meet predefined criteria to be regulated by the government,” Spinu mentioned in a statement. The haulers claimed today that behind the new rules proposed by the government, the group’s corrupt interests are hidden and the aim is to take over the business of several companies in the sector.