3,132 trucks are waiting at Kapıkule: how to make the routing decision this week
Choosing a route is normally a matter of preference. Over the past weeks it has become a question of cost and service level. Every border figure below comes from the congestion table of the Turkish international transporters' association UND, from the measurement taken on 17 October 2026 at 12:59 and from the fourteen days before it. No estimates; the interpretation comes at the end.
One note: aktif trans operates both corridors itself — the overland route through the Balkans and Ro-Ro via Italy. This article is not written to defend a corridor, but to say which cargo belongs on which one.
The queue at Kapıkule is 1 km. That is precisely the misleading number
The queue in front of the crossing has been 1 kilometre long for two weeks. Anyone looking only at that concludes there is no problem. The problem is not in the queue, it is in the holding yard: on 6 October 2,300 vehicles were waiting there, on 17 October 3,132. Thirty-six percent more in eleven days.
Over the same period the number of departures did not change. Between 852 and 1,023 a day, 918 on average. The capacity of the crossing is constant while more vehicles arrive. The waiting is not recorded in the queue but in the yard — and waiting in the yard is still waiting.
Kapıkule holding yard: 6 October 2,300 vehicles → 17 October 3,132 vehicles
Kapıkule daily departures: 852–1,023, average 918 — no trend
Hamzabeyli queue: 6 October 11 km → 17 October 34 km
The queue has not disappeared, it has moved: Hamzabeyli
When Kapıkule fills up, vehicles divert to Hamzabeyli. The queue there was 11 kilometres on 6 October and 34 on 17 October. The holding yard has been unchanged at 1,100 vehicles for fifteen days: the yard is full and the rest lines up on the road. The alternative crossing is not a way out; it is the second face of the same bottleneck.
The real bottleneck is not the queue: Hungarian transit permits have run out
A queue delays you; a missing permit stops you from setting off at all. The Hungarian transit permits issued at Kapıkule have run out and no date has been given for the next allocation. This is not a queuing problem, it is a ceiling. A vehicle without a permit is not a waiting vehicle; that trip cannot be planned at all.
A second note: on 14 October the Bulgarian government approved a draft agreement for an additional crossing under the name Kapitan Andreevo–Kapıkule North. The number of lanes, the operating hours and the technical layout have not been settled. The capacity this decision adds to the current shipping season is therefore zero.
The road route has lost its time advantage to Germany
The real news in this article is not the border figures but their consequence. To Germany, transit time by the Balkan overland route and by Ro-Ro via Italy is now equal. The road used to be structurally faster; the days spent at the border have eaten that difference.
In practice this means that speed no longer decides the route for shipments to Germany. Once the pace is equal, the decision moves to the remaining criteria — is there a transit permit, does the cargo tolerate a transhipment, must the cold chain stay unbroken, where is the customs step handled. These used to be second-order questions; this week they moved to first place.
3,132 vehicles in the yard and 34 kilometres on the road are fleet withdrawn from the market. The longer a tractor unit's trip takes, the fewer turns it completes in a month; capacity contracts even when demand does not rise at all. That belongs in any planning.
Our own commitment has not changed: on the Germany and Italy line we deliver groupage in five days instead of the ten that are customary in the industry. The truck departs even when it is half full — like a scheduled flight that does not wait because three seats are empty. On some departures that costs us money; that is exactly why the date holds.
When Ro-Ro is the right answer and when it is not
Ro-Ro bypasses the land border, but it is not the answer for every cargo. The decision rests on a few clear criteria:
Transit time, Germany: Now equal. The days spent at the border have consumed the road's structural time advantage.
Transit time, northern Italy: The road route depends directly on border waiting time; Ro-Ro is more predictable because it bypasses the land border.
Transit permit: The road route depends on the Hungarian permit, which is currently exhausted; Ro-Ro is independent of the land transit quota.
Distribution inside Germany: The road route runs door to door on one vehicle, with no transhipment; with Ro-Ro an onward leg is needed after Italy.
Cold chain: On the road the vehicle is never left; in unaccompanied Ro-Ro a generator and monitoring are mandatory.
ADR: On the road there is continuous supervision by a trained driver; with Ro-Ro acceptance conditions vary by line and by sailing.
The Milan case shows how the two work together: a shipment in Germany for which no reefer was available and a second one in southern Italy, where Turkish vehicles do not normally go, were consolidated in Milan, the Thermoking ran without interruption and delivery took three days. The right question is not "which route is better" but "which route does this cargo belong on".
Why this matters on this line in particular
Italy is not a side corridor for aktif trans. Traffic between northern Italy and Türkiye is the densest flow on our line; points such as Udine, Milan and Monselice are regularly in our schedule. Germany is the second main flow, and in both directions we run both overland and Ro-Ro departures.
There is one more detail that directly affects the routing decision: a significant share of shipments does not end at the factory gate but in a bonded warehouse — Dilovası, Bursa, Erenköy, Istanbul. When the destination is a bonded warehouse, where and when the customs step happens matters at least as much as the route itself.
The decision rule for this week
If the cargo is to run through Hungary, ask about the permit situation first. Without a permit the routing discussion is pointless.
If the destination is Germany, do not choose the route on speed — transit time is now equal. Choose on permit, transhipment and cargo type.
If the destination is northern Italy and the date is tight, Ro-Ro is more predictable because it bypasses the land border.
If distribution in Germany involves many stops, the road route without transhipment still has the advantage — add a border buffer to the transit time.
If the cargo is temperature-controlled or ADR, the requirement of the cargo decides the route, not the calendar.
If the destination is a bonded warehouse, build the customs step into the shipment plan; the step added afterwards is the most expensive one.
Frequently asked questions
The queue at Kapıkule looks like 1 km — where is the problem?
The queue is short because the vehicles are held in the yard. In the measurement of 17 October there were 3,132 vehicles in the yard and 908 daily departures. Waiting time is read from the stock in the yard, not from the length of the queue.
Is it faster through Hamzabeyli?
Not at present. The queue at Hamzabeyli grew from 11 km on 6 October to 34 km on 17 October, and the holding yard is full.
What can be done without a Hungarian transit permit?
Either the overland route is rebuilt on a routing that needs no permit, or the cargo moves to Ro-Ro. No date has been announced for the permits to be issued again.
Which route is faster to Germany?
Neither at present. Transit time to Germany by the Balkan overland route and by Ro-Ro via Italy is equal. The decision is therefore made on the transit permit, the need for transhipment and the type of cargo, not on speed.
Data source: border crossing congestion table of the Turkish international transporters' association UND, measurements from 3 to 17 October 2026. Transit permit status: transporter notice of 15 October 2026. Decision on the new border crossing: 14 October 2026.
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