After the return of most of the trucks detained last year from Belarus, the president of the National Association of Road Carriers Linava, Erlandas Mikanas, says that there may still be about 200 or 10% of all previously detained trucks in the neighboring country.
In an interview with the business portal Verslo zinios, Mikas Mikanas explained that there are no exact data on the number of trucks. Information comes only from the border service, which accounts for trucks and trailers differently than the association.
The head of Linava claims that Belarus is not striving for the promised nationalization of Lithuanian vehicles, but merely wants to collect money for forced parking and get rid of the detained property.
Stanislav Songin, the head of the registered transport company Sontransa in Šalčininkai, informed the portal that he had taken all his vehicles out of Belarus. However, he heard that the owners of old trucks do not see the point in paying amounts exceeding the value of the property itself.
As previously reported by Bb.lv, the first trucks of Lithuanian companies, which had been standing for about four months in special parking lots in Belarus, crossed the border in mid-March after the authoritarian President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, gave the "green light" for their departure.
It was reported that vehicles would be able to leave after receiving payment for their storage in special parking lots from the carriers. Belarusian authorities stated that this fee is "several times lower" than the previously established fee of 120 euros per day set by Minsk.
The Minsk regime detained Lithuanian trucks in October last year when Lithuania temporarily closed the border due to a flow of smuggled weather balloons coming from Belarus, which repeatedly disrupted the operations of Vilnius Airport. Although the border was later reopened, Minsk did not allow the trucks to leave the country, directing them to special parking lots and threatening confiscation.
