Truck queue at Nur Zholy–Khorgos cut tenfold: what changed for hauliers?

Truck waiting time in the queue on the Nur Zholy–Khorgos route has fallen tenfold, Transport Minister Nurlan Sauranbayev said on 6 October. That is significant for drivers, but it is a claim about one route, not every Kazakhstan border crossing.

What the new system does

At Nur Zholy, a single QR code in a digital freight passport has replaced the paper ticket. The ministry says more than 11,000 passports have been issued and cargo throughput speed has risen by 30%. Smart Cargo combines 58 data sources to track international freight from departure to arrival.

The 30-minute figure is still a goal

The government wants a freight vehicle to pass through a checkpoint in no more than 30 minutes. It has not said that every driver can already cross in half an hour. The ministry plans to raise the share of cargo with a digital passport from 20% this year to 60% in 2027 and 80% in 2028.

To judge the result, carriers need published measurements by checkpoint and time of day: typical queue time, peak delays and vehicle counts. Without these, the tenfold improvement is an important but location-specific ministerial claim.

Photo: Правительство РК, CC BY 4.0; фото выступления министра на заседании.

Primary source: https://primeminister.kz/ru/news/cifrovizaciya-sokratila-ozhidanie-gruzov-na-granice-v-10-raz-31963.