Unreliable transit services

With the very poor economic performance of land-locked developing countries and the severe shortages of foreign exchange availabilities and domestic resources, these countries continue to fail to meet their requirements for maintaining the operational capability of the existing transit transport facilities. The limited resources they have are generally devoted to such pressing needs as food and fuel, with the result that the maintenance of transit facilities has often had to be deferred. This has led to the deterioration of facilities, which in many cases then need to be totally rehabilitated and overhauled. The transport of goods through a foreign territory risks their diversion into the domestic market, thereby evading import controls and tariffs. This necessitates in several cases the restriction by transit countries of the movement of transit traffic to specific modes of transport and routes and the requirement of a security bond deposit. More often, there are no clear analyses of present and prospective demands made on each existing or potential transit route by either the land-locked or the transit countries, nor the management and maintenance needs for each actual or proposed transit route. Storage capacities on each corridor may be non-existent or inadequate and there is usually insufficient establishment of the procedures for each transit route, as well as inadequate existing legislation, documentation, conventions and working agreements to govern international transport under all conditions. Detailed direct and indirect costs for both operators and users at each stage of each major transit route are not calculated and overall rate structures for routes are inconsistent. There is, characteristically, little concrete forward planning based on the capacity of each transit corridor, including consideration neither of short-term alternative cargo mixes and cargo types in the present system, nor of significant long-term changes in infrastructure, investment patterns, commodity markets and foreign trade.