Bottlenecking at Beitbridge because of Covid-19 testing procedures is continuing, Freight News has been told.
This comes after it was decided to convert a container on the bridge across the Limpopo River into a coronavirus manual testing station for truckers.
Last week, on the south side of the border, the truck queue at one stage stretched all the way to Musina.
Over the weekend the queue again reached the China Mall area just north of the town.
On the Zimbabwe side too trucks were queueing for more than 10 kilometres at least, said Mike Fitzmaurice, chief executive of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta).
He stressed that the testing procedures to which truck drivers were expected to adhere - filling in forms once they got to the testing station - were manual and too slow.
“The completion of forms, the fact that it takes around 15 minutes to test each driver – it all adds to delays."
Last week he asked why drivers heading north and south weren’t encouraged to fill in their forms online.
“Surely it would help to save time?”
As for border crossings elsewhere in the region- Lebombo going east from South Africa into Mozambique and Skilpadshek going west into Botswana – remain a problem.
“Testing for the virus has caused delays at borders everywhere.”
