The trucking industry sustained losses estimated at around JD100 million due to the coronavirus pandemic, head of the Jordan Truck Owners Association Mohammad Kheir Al Dawood said on Wednesday.

The value of the trucking investment in the land transport sector is estimated at JD1.6 billion, Dawood said in remarks to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, pointing out that the sector includes more than 22,000 Jordanian trucks, of which 6,000 have stopped work after a series of measures imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

He noted that the main challenge facing the trucking industry is the institutional quarantine of drivers. The sector is part of the national production cycle, when disrupted, the flow of goods and stocks will be affected, he added.

Sector representatives are calling for revising the institutional quarantine decision that has been re-imposed on drivers entering the Kingdom since last week, to be replaced by home quarantine and conducting the PCR test upon arrival to the Kingdom’s border crossings as well as signing a written pledge to adhere to health measures, he added.

The association president also urged the government to exempt the trucking industry from taxes and licensing fees. 

The resumption of operations at the Jaber border crossing "will not revive the sector at the local level”, as majority of trucks passing through the border crossing are transit trucks, he added.

Khaled Shantawi, a sector representative, said that the industry has been deprived of government’s support provided to COVID-19-hit sectors, adding that "thousands of drivers did not work during the crisis for fear that they and their families would be affected by this dangerous virus.”

A truck owner, Hamdan Abdul Qadir, highlighted that workers in the sector have been calling on the government to find an alternative to the truckers’ institutional quarantine, voicing demands "to be treated as any Jordanian arrival to the Kingdom”, who enter the country via airports.