Ten days on from the devastating earthquake that hit Northern Syria and Eastern Türkiye, the road transport sector remains at the heart of recovery efforts.
IRU members and the wider road transport community in Syria and Türkiye are continuing to support relief and recovery operations. In our last news on the tragedy, we posted important information and links which remain valid. Here is an update.
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent has asked IRU member, the Syrian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce, for help with hospital equipment donations as well as blankets and tents, and their transport via Lebanon. Please contact management@icc-syria.com if you can help.
In Türkiye, IRU members TOBB and UND continue to focus on logistics and transport coordination into eastern parts of the country, directly and via Turkish and international humanitarian and rescue organisations.
Both continue to coordinate transport needs and requests for shipping equipment, food, medicines and transport. More information is available here and here.
Donations
Many from the global road transport community have reached out to help with support and donations. TOBB and UND are recommending the following organisations for financial donations.
- AFAD, Turkish national emergency response agency and here
- International Red Cross Committee
- International Red Cross Federation and here
- UN World Food Programme and here
TIR aid transit
The TIR system is playing a role in speeding up humanitarian shipments across borders into both Syria and Türkiye. Aid from the Pakistani government is currently travelling in a convoy of 21 trucks, all under the TIR guarantee, from Pakistan via Iran to Türkiye and Syria.
Operated by Pakistani haulage firm NLC, the convoy is using the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul (ITI) trade corridor, activated in October 2021 under the TIR system.
Global coordination
IRU continues to participate in the United Nations Global Logistics Cluster of the World Food Programme to coordinate international logistics related to aid delivery.
IRU also continues to work on issues, including customs difficulties for humanitarian shipments and driving and rest time rules for drivers of humanitarian transports.
For the latter, although these rules are waived for trucks transporting humanitarian aid, the tracking of truck drivers in subsequent operations, via their tachographs, is leading to misleading fines being levied.
IRU is addressing this issue with UNECE and the International Transport Forum, as well as EU and enforcement authorities.