New corona digital certificates plan to ease goods transport

East African countries have moved to ease movement of goods at the border with the roll out of a system that will allow them to share Covid-19 test results of truck drivers electronically.

The reliance of hard to verify manual certificates has been blamed for costly long delays at the crossing points that sometimes last for weeks.

The EAC regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking system, however, will enable authorities to share test results of the drivers and crew facilitating easy information exchange along the transport corridor.

This means, no transit cargo will leave the port of Mombasa or any Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) facility without a driver being aligned with the truck and the cargo in the system.

According to a notice by the EAC secretariat to relevant ministries of the member countries, all drivers must upload their Covid-19 certificates to the new system before cargo is armed with tracking gadgets, a directive which has already been opposed by transporters faulting the short implementation notice.

“Following a joint ministerial meeting responsible for Health, Trade and EAC held by video Conference on March 25 and in line with the directive of the Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment held on June 3, the EAC Secretariat with support from trade mark East Africa had finalised the development of EAC Regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking System,” read a section of the circular by Deputy Secretary General EAC Christophe Bazivamo.

Mr Bazivamo said the new system will help in sharing of cross border truck drivers/crews EAC Covid-19 certificates of negative results electronically and facilitate easy information exchange along corridors of transport.

“It is important to know that from July 24, all Covid-19 certificates for cross border trucks drivers shall be issued from the Regional Electronic Cargo and Driver Tracking system (RECDTS) platform,” said Bazivamo.

He added: “EAC wished to request all partner states to officially inform all transporters/truck owners about this regional initiative and sensitise them to have drivers registered in the mentioned system.”

The system has already received some push back with transporters seeking suspension of the system until their concerns are addressed.