Establishing green lanes for goods moving under TIR, which is the only global transit system and supported by electronic tools sending advance cargo information and providing high security to customs, could make the North-South and East-West corridors more efficient, Umberto de Pretto, Secretary General of International Road Transport Union (IRU), said in an interview with Report.

"However, to double the efficiency of the border crossing, such green lanes should be established on both sides of the border. That's why we recommend that Azerbaijan and Türkiye do the same from their side to benefit from such a secure facilitation tool," he said.

The secretary general reminded that an IRU delegation visited three key Iranian border crossings – on the borders with Azerbaijan and Türkiye at the end of 2025.

"The visits – Türkiye and Azerbaijan – Bazargan (Iran–Türkiye), Astara (Iran–Azerbaijan), and Bilehsavar (Iran–Azerbaijan) – focused on evaluating current infrastructure and customs procedures to identify potential areas for improvement through the tried-and-tested TIR system.

One of the main issues we identified is the low level of acceptance of trucks from neighboring countries, which has created congestion at borders," Pretto added.

The official also noted, "During the visit to these borders, the participants agreed to prioritize TIR, including by establishing TIR Green Lanes to enable TIR trucks to cross borders even more efficiently. They also decided to facilitate operators' access to TIR, including by distributing TIR carnets at border crossings. We also identified challenges in TIR implementation and agreed to arrange capacity-building activities for relevant stakeholders through our TIR associations and their local branches."

Read the full interview here.

It is important to refer to the use of materials on this site. When using the information on the web pages, it should be referred to through hyperlinks.