How the blocking of the border by the Poles affected car imports to Ukraine: it became known which cars were imported less

Due to the blockade of the Ukrainian border by the Poles, the dynamics of vehicle imports at regional customs did not change significantly. However, since the beginning of the year, clearances at some other customs offices, in particular, Volyn Customs, have increased. During the blockade, the number of cars imported in large car carriers decreased.

Thus, the blocking of the borders could only affect the total number of vehicles, as customs clearance mainly takes place at regional customs offices, much less often at the checkpoints. This is stated in the material of the Institute for Automotive Research.

At the same time, there were more noticeable changes in the methods of importing vehicles: the share of small car carriers (with a gross weight of up to 7 tons) and car trailers that can transport passenger cars grew the most. The peak of vehicles arriving by this method occurred just at the beginning of the checkpoint blocking.

The flow of vehicles on their own did not decrease (all types of vehicles were taken into account), and imports by mixed methods - customs clearance of imports from other customs regimes (customs warehouse, temporary import, etc.) - also increased.

"In practice, the number of cars, primarily passenger cars, which were imported in large car carriers designed for 6-8 cars, has decreased. Now this flow is somewhat reoriented to carriages and platforms that can take one car on board, or two if with a trailer," explains Yulia Rykovska, CEO of West Auto Hub, a company that delivers cars from Europe.

However, not all vehicles can be imported in this way - there is heavy machinery, cargo semi-trailers and other similar options that can only be transported by large trucks, she added.

In the end, there were no significant changes in the quantity of imports of vehicles to Ukraine as a result of the blocking of checkpoints. However, there have been qualitative changes - in particular, delivery times have increased, as reported by practitioners in this area, and the price of delivery services has increased slightly.

Since the reorientation of carriers to "small cars" entails the need to pay one driver to transport 1-2 cars instead of 6-8, the daily freight of tow trucks/ lorries that waste their time in artificially created queues is also added.

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