Romanian shipment companies will have to prove they own a guarantee fund worth 35,000-50,000 dollars in order to obtain their licence, starting with January 1, 2002.
The Transports Ministry is planning to promote a normative document regarding expedition house licensing, in order to confine the access of companies providing these services but failing to present solvency guarantees or benefiting from the lack of a legal framework.
"Romania must harmonise its legislative system on transportation activities and merchandise shipment with international legislation. Secondly, we must create a homogenous market made up of strong shipment companies," said Marius Bota, state secretary with the Ministry of Public Works, Transports and Housing.
According to the new regulations, each shipment company must deposit between 35,000 and 50,000 dollars in its accounts, in order to guarantee the concluded contracts. Moreover, shippers will have to levy a minimum taxable level of 1.5 Deutsche marks per kilometre, to avoid fraud against the state.
"This legislative project will help us to eliminate small shipment companies, which are often unable to make payments stipulated in contracts, thus creating difficulties for the Romanian trade," says Sergiu Ionescu, general manager of the Road Transportation department within the Ministry of Public Works, Transports and Housing.
"European states are strongly focusing on combined transports, therefore the staff of shipment companies must be highly specialised in all transportation fields and the customs activity," Marius Cae, chairman of the Union of Romanian Shipment Companies, told the Congress of Balkan Shippers.
Shipment companies should be licensed by the Commerce and Industry Chambers, says Aldo Da Ros, president of the International Shippers Federation.
According to Aldo Da Ros, companies should be able to make all payments to subcontractors and should be led by managers with at least ten years of experience in international transports.
"Shipment companies' licensing will be coordinated by the Ministry of Public Works, Transports and Housing, as merchandise shipment falls into the transportation field," Sergiu Ionescu maintained.
There are more than ten thousand shipment companies in Romania, but only several dozens of these companies meet the licensing conditions stipulated in the future normative document.
The initiative of the Transports Ministry is not to the liking of Romanian shippers. "If a guarantee is imposed, most of the dishonest companies will be eliminated, but it will also affect many honest companies, which find it very difficult to keep 50,000 dollars blocked in bank accounts," says Andreea Turcu, director of Elna Trans.
Other shippers feel that the Ministry should not waste time implementing a legislative system that will make it hard for small but honest companies, but that it should look for illegal companies instead.
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