Land transport sector losses worsened by government policies — association

AMMAN — The land transport sector has suffered hundreds of millions in losses due to the regional unrest, a repercussion that could have been avoided if the government were "farsighted enough", a sector leader said Thursday.

"The turmoil in Iraq and Syria has caused us around JD535 million in losses. Before 2003, a total of 400 trucks laden with commodities used to enter Iraq every day and around the same to Syria before the crisis. The situation now is really bad," said Mohammad Dawood, president of the Jordan Truck Owners Association. 

Currently, more than 6,000 trucks are "almost idle" out of the 17,000-truck fleet, he told The Jordan Times.

"Many trucks have been sold at auction because they were mortgaged to banks and their owners could not pay. A sector whose total investment exceeds JD1.5 billion is now almost doomed," Dawood said, adding that more than 50,000 Jordanian households have been affected by the damages.

"Closing the Trebil border with Iraq is alone causing losses to more than 2,000 trucks a month," he added.  

Although the association understands  government measures to close borders of troubled countries to Jordanian trucks, it blames it for not introducing alternatives, according to Dawood. 

"We know that Jordanian trucks could not enter Syria and Iraq due to the armed groups there, but halting trade movement was not the answer," the syndicate president said, demanding that the Transport Ministry  works towards opening new markets. 

"The ministry could have entered agreements with the Gulf states to facilitate the entry of our commodities, which sometimes remain stranded at the borders for three days before being granted entry," he noted. 

He added that the "shortsightedness" of the ministry has "deepened the losses of the sector". 

The Jordan Times could not reach officials from the Transport Ministry for comment on the issue despite several attempts to contact them.