Kenya

The Kenyan Government has sorted the key issues raised by its neighbours for the use of the Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Naivasha (EABW News, 5 June). Transport Cabinet secretary James Macharia, in a bid to manage the concerns of Uganda, Kenya’s biggest trade partner in East Africa, said the Naivasha ICD has improved its operations and made it easy for onward transit of cargo to the Malaba border and into Uganda. Uganda had argued that the use of the Naivasha ICD should be optional but Macharia stated it will be economically viable for cargo transported by rail to Naivasha. The use of the Standard Gauge Railway reduces costs of transport by almost half and also plays a big role in reducing the spread of the Covid-19. On Tuesday, Macharia said Kenya Railways was putting up a marshalling yard to help deal with parking challenges for the transit vehicles. He also said he had held a virtual meeting with his colleagues in Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan to iron out the other challenges especially those resulting from the Covid-19 testing protocols. Macharia said using the ICD would also be cheaper by about Sh45,000 ($450) per container compared to the roads.

For detailed information about road disruptions in Africa please follow the Bolloré Logistics report, World Food Programme report and Logistics Cluster report.

For a selected summary download the file here.

Europe

Traffic remains much more fluid inside the EU countries in order to transport cargo; however, border controls are effective in many countries and long queues are reported, especially between central European countries. Waiting time can be up to 2–3 hours to cross a border. This can be a big problem when transporting perishables that have to cross more than two countries. The delays are the same as from the beginning of the outbreak, and at the moment borders between France and Germany, and Germany and Switzerland, are reporting queues and delays. We can still see delays at borders from Hungary to Romania, Romania to Bulgaria, and Slovenia to Croatia.
Sixfold provides an excellent tool to check live information on queues at EU borders.