The corridor moves at 8.6 km/h

CAREC measures its own corridors every year. The numbers say the trucks are not the problem.

8.6 km/h

Average speed with delays on CAREC Corridor 5The route through the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Roughly the pace of a bicycle.

28.4 km/h

The same corridor with delays excludedTake the waiting out and the truck is three times faster. Nothing about the vehicle changed.

22.7 km/h

CAREC-wide average speed with delaysAgainst 42.9 km/h without. The gap is the whole story, on every corridor.

15.1 h

Average time to clear a border crossing pointUp from 12.2 h the year before.

40.2 h

Average border-crossing time on Corridor 5On Corridor 4 the same measurement is 6.3 h.

70.7 h

Outbound clearance at ChamanTorkham: 50.0 h. Kuryk: 69.7 h.

$199

Average cost of a single border crossingUp from $161 the year before.

A truck capable of 28 km/h is averaging 8.6. That difference is not asphalt, engines or drivers — it is time spent stationary while somebody works out who is carrying what. Which is a coordination problem, and coordination problems are the kind you can actually fix.