A million trucks and lorries over eastern border in 2007

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Just over a million trucks and lorries passed over Finland’s eastern in 2007.
      According to the statistics released by the Finnish Customs, a total of 1,030,938 lorries and trucks crossed Finland’s eastern border last year, setting an all-time record.
      Nearly all of them, just under 1 million, crossed the border over the checkpoints in Finland’s Eastern Customs District, most noticeably the crossing points at Vaalimaa and Nuijamaa in the south-east.
     
At the same time, a total of 34,380 trucks passed through the border crossing stations in the Northern Customs District, for example at Vartius and Kuusamo.
      Some idea of the astonishing volume can be gained from deconstructing the numbers: a million trucks a year comes down to around 2,750 per day, 365 days of the year.
      And this corresponds to 115 an hour, or two trucks every minute.
      Since by far the largest share of the goods traffic is heading eastwards, it is perhaps a little more understandable that the past year has seen repeated headlines of "huge queues" and "50 km tailbacks" at the border.
     
The Finnish Road Administration provides updated information on the traffic situation at the southeastern border; see the link below.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Record queues threaten eastbound cross-border traffic at Christmas (13.12.2007)
  Customs consider closing border to curb lorry queue (27.9.2007)

Links:
  Finnish Road Administration: Traffic situation at the border
  Finnish Customs

Helsingin Sanomat