LONG LINE OF LORRIES AT DANUBE BRIDGE BECAUSE OF NO CASH PAYMENT RULE

Kilometres long line of lorries is snaking along “Bulgaria” bulevard on 2nd of December in the North Bulgarian city of Rousse, at the Bulgarian-Romanian border.

The drivers have been waiting for more than 12 hours to cross into Romania through Danube Bridge border crossing.

The reason for the delays is the non-cash rule introduced on 1st of December, requiring payment of tolls for passage across Danube Bridge to be made via POS terminal only.

Bulgarian Customs Agency announced that 50 lorries per hour cross into Romania after the new system of electronic payment was introduced. In order to speed up the payment process, 3 pay desks with POS terminals are functioning. From the introduction of the new payment rule to the morning on 2nd of December, 925 lorries have crossed Danube Bridge to Romania. According to information of the Bulgarian Customs Agency, this number of lorries is not different from the usual traffic flow at the border.

Despite the measure taken to facilitate the process, drivers complained about having to wait in the queue.

Many drivers did not have credit or debit cards and gave cash to their colleagues who have cards to pay for them.

Some said they did not have money in the cards and had to make telephone calls and ask family or friends to tranfer money to their cards.

Many drivers said they did not know about the requirement to pay with cards only.

Boards with information about the new non-cash rule were installed by Bulgarian Customs Agency a month ago.