coffindodger

Saeed Al Hamad scanned the horizon, looking for an end to the interminable line of trucks on the shoulder of the highway leading to the King Fahd Causeway, the 25-kilometre terrestrial link between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
From his glass office overlooking the highway, Al Hamad has often seen long queues of vehicles inching towards the starting point of the causeway barely 100 metres away, but it was the first time he was seeing such a long line of trucks making painstakingly slow progress.
The sight was a real shock, and Al Hamad, a veteran journalist who likes to believe that nothing can ever surprise him anymore, kept shaking his head in disbelief that almost three decades after the launch of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), trucks carrying goods across the border still had to wait up to five days before they could make the crossing from one country to the other.
Mahmoud Malik, a driver who had brought along food supplies to last him three days, hoping it would be enough time to obtain customs clearance on both sides, was running short of rations. He was down to his last bottle of water and his last green olives.
"If I leave my truck to go and buy some food items or more bottles of water, I may lose some very precious metres that could mean more hours of frustration for me," he said.
Zahid, a veteran truck driver, had worked out a strategy. He said every time he arrived near the causeway, he tried to strike a deal with his fellow drivers so that they could take turns watching over the trucks.
Akhtar Basheer is thankful that investors are fully aware of the delays and procrastinations on the causeway.
"They know that if we are late, it is because of the long administrative procedures and not because the drivers are lazy or incompetent," he said.
For the drivers and their employers, the real issue is the flagrant mismatch between the number of officers and the number of trucks.

"The inspection procedures on both sides of the causeway need to be faster in order to promptly handle the high number of trucks crossing the causeway," said Ahmad Mohammad Al Muqbal, who runs a Saudi surface transport firm. "There is also a problem with the working schedules and hours. They need to be addressed decisively."
In May, the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) urged the Saudi authorities to keep the customs office open 24 hours.
"We have a serious humanitarian problem and we need to have solutions as soon as possible. It seems that the Gulf Customs Union and the Common Gulf Market agreements did not have any effect on facilitating the passage of trucks and goods between the Gulf Cooperation Council states.

http://www.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/bahrain/10323119.html

This follows on from this story over the last few days.
http://www.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/sa.../10323247.html

eylesda

Several reasons for delays.

All trucks now get a thorough searching due to an increase in smuggling booze and drugs into Saudi and drugs and arms into Bahrain (maybe these 2 should get together).

Several well known couriers used to use their sealed trailers for bringing booze into the country, now you see them all queing too.

Bahrain was exporting the subsidized cement from Saudi so they are now restricted to 25,000 per week. As soon as that amount is reached the border is closed until the next week. Hence all the cement tankers and trailers waiting on the Saudi side.

Cheap diesel is being bought in Saudi and tanked to Bahrain and beyond so the Saudis are trying to put an end to that too.

Years ago Bahrain banned truckers from taking a return load to secure Bahraini jobs, naturally Saudi imposed the same ban and we now have twice as many trucks as needed.

The running theme here is greed from the truckers and the trucking companies.

lionheart

Isn't this "old news" as I remember reading about it some time ago?

eylesda

It's been going on for well over a year now.
Very difficult, and expensive, to get a trucker to take anything to Bahrain now.

Poor sods live beside the road for days on end eating, washing etc. where they are and in 48 degree heat now.

I see one concession has been made in the form of a portable mosque.

The same trucks that were there on Saturday morning were still there when I passed this morning, I know because I recognised one truck in particular.

On the Bahrain side they are layed up beside an old burial mound site of great acheological interest.
They are using the site as one big toilet! Might make for interesting digging in the future.

Thunderbirds Are Go

i heard that a 25km queue has also formed at the border crossing with saudi & uae. apparently, the saudis imposed this as tit for tat, after the uae pulled out of GCC monetary union.