Three years of eCherha operation: key results of the digital border crossing system

On December 12, 2025, the eCherha border crossing project will mark three years since its launch. On December 12, 2022, at the Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint on the border with Poland, electronic registration for border crossing replaced physical queuing on the road.

This means that drivers no longer had to wait for days and weeks on the road, but could plan their border crossing. This achieves the key goal of the project: to prevent physical queues at borders and enable logistics planning.

Over the next few years, the unique system was scaled to other key checkpoints for trucks, the project team developed the functionality of eCherha, and launched online registration for buses as well.

“In three years, eCherha has become an integral part of the country’s transport system and an important tool for stable logistics in wartime. We have completely changed the approach to border crossing: physical queues on the roads have been replaced by a transparent, predictable digital mechanism that allows drivers to plan their time while the state - to manage flows efficiently. More than 2.6 million border crossings, mandatory electronic registration for commercial transport, and operation at 29 checkpoints confirm the scale of the system and its importance for the economy. The system has made it possible to prioritize cargo, minimize corruption risks, and lay the foundation for further digitization of border procedures.

The plans include the introduction of new functionality and the launch of a pilot program for passenger cars to ensure fast, transparent, and safe border crossing for all traffic participants," said Deputy Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine – Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine Oleksii Kuleba.

Today, eCherha operates at all checkpoints for trucks and buses – a total of 29 international checkpoints with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova. Registration for travel abroad in eCherha is mandatory for all commercial vehicles – both Ukrainian and foreign.

In the three years since eCherha has been in operation, Ukrainian and foreign carriers have made more than 2.6 million border crossings. Of these, more than 2.3 million were made by trucks and 329,000 by buses.

In total, the system has recorded over 107,000 unique trucks that have crossed the border at least once. During the same period, there were over 103,000 downloads of the eCherha app.

The top five border crossing points with the highest traffic of trucks are:

• Yahodyn-Dorohusk – 524,589
• Krakivets – Korczowa (Poland) — 281,600
• Porubne – Siret (Romania) — 233,477
• Chop – Zahony (Hungary) — 205,371
• Shehyni – Medyka (Poland) — 172,446

These figures can be explained primarily by the gradual introduction of the System at various border crossing points.

Almost 90% of border crossings were made by trucks registered in Ukraine. The other 10% were foreign vehicles. Among them, trucks from Poland, Moldova, Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Latvia most often leave according to the eCherha.

The system also allows the average time spent on vehicle inspection to be recorded. For example, loaded vehicles actually spend twice as long at the checkpoint as empty ones. In particular, the average processing time for loaded vehicles is 3 hours and 1 minute, and for empty ones, 1 hour and 36 minutes. The longest processing time is for goods in groups 1-24, which require phytosanitary/veterinary control – on average, this takes 6 hours and 38 minutes.

In addition, eCherha also ensures transparent movement in the queue for priority goods, primarily perishable cargo. During the entire period of the project's operation, the system recorded more than 60,000 border crossings with perishable goods. The average waiting time from the moment of joining the queue to crossing the border for such transport was 3 hours and 36 minutes. This shows that the digital algorithm ensures clear movement in the queue, while minimizing corruption risks. Therefore, perishable goods

Perishable goods mostly moved without significant delays.

For buses, the queue currently operates in two formats: a slot system with reservations for crossing the border and a dynamic queue, which is simply a registration without a specific time. The first has already been implemented at most checkpoints (23).

Among buses, the list of the top five checkpoints with the highest number of border crossings during the project is as follows:

• Shehyni – Medyka (Poland) — 37,925
• Yahodyn – Dorohusk (Poland) — 36,917
• Krakivets – Korczowa (Poland) — 36,529
• Rava-Ruska – Hrebenne (Poland) — 26,886
• Porubne – Siret (Romania) — 26,361

It should be noted that these figures are influenced by the gradual connection of the above-mentioned checkpoints to the eCherha system.

Ukrainian buses accounted for almost 73% of all crossings in the system. Almost 20% of crossings were made by buses from Poland and Moldova. The Czech Republic, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Germany, and Slovakia followed in terms of the amount of crossings.

This year, the system recorded 411 passenger carriers operating regular routes. However, there are twice as many carriers operating irregular flights – 815. During the same period, 876 regular routes to various countries were used according to the eCherha records.

The most popular regular routes used for traveling abroad were:

• Kyiv – Chisinau — 3,705
• Chernivtsi – Salcha — 3,162
• Odesa – Chisinau — 2,917
• Kherson – Szczecin — 2,852
• Avanhard – Chisinau – 2,753
• Chernivtsi – Warsaw – 2,532
• Zaporizhia – Warsaw – 2,458
• Chernivtsi – Wroclaw – 2,423
• Kyiv – Poznan – 2,320
• Kyiv – Bucharest — 2,289

Carriers used two types of permits for irregular routes. During the system's operation, 7,971 trips were made with single-use permits, and 85,264 border crossings were made using Interbus logs.

The immediate plans for modernizing the project include streamlining the movement of priority cargo (T1, TIR, AEO), installing automatic recording cameras at checkpoints, launching a pilot project for passenger cars, improving functionality for buses and trucks, and preparing legislative changes to approve eCherha at the legal level.

Background information

The “Electronic Border Crossing Queue” – eCherha - project is being implemented by the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development in cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Ukrtransbezpeka, the State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development, the State Customs Service, and the State Border Service, with the assistance of the EU-funded and IOM implemented project “EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU for Solidarity Lanes and IBM)” and the project “Digitalization for Growth, Integrity, and Transparency” (UK DIGIT), implemented by the East Europe Foundation and funded by UK Dev.