eCherha expands: Development of new services for passenger cars and system updates for trucks and buses triggers
The Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine is launching the work on new eCherha system features that will expand its use to passenger cars and update capabilities for commercial transport—trucks and buses.
The development is taking place with the support of the project "EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM-Solidarity Lanes),” implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Mission in Ukraine and funded by the European Union.
One of the key innovations will be the ability to reserve a spot in the electronic queue for passenger cars.
The implementation of eCherha for passenger cars is also supported by the “Digitalization for Growth, Integrity, and Transparency” (UK DIGIT) project, implemented by the Eurasia Foundation and funded by UK Dev. In particular, the project supports the development of a service for joining the electronic queue via the Diia app.
The service will be available via the Diia app, the website, and the eCherha mobile app.
This means that the electronic queue will be available not only to licensed carriers but also to citizens crossing the border in their personal vehicles—both Ukrainians and foreigners.
“We continue to systematically develop eCherha as a tool for transparent and predictable border crossing. The system does more than just replace physical waiting in line; it allows us to ensure predictable logistics and the ability to plan transportation,” said Oleksii Kuleba, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration and Minister for Communities and Territories Development. “Since this project launch, there have been over 3 million border crossings by trucks and buses using online registration. A logical next step for this project is to expand it to passenger cars, which we are actively working on. At the same time, we are improving the mechanisms for commercial transport. Our goal is to make border crossing more convenient for people and businesses.”
As part of a large-scale system update, a number of new features are planned.
In particular, the system will automatically verify the presence of a Green Card insurance policy when booking a spot in the queue. Users will only need to enter their vehicle’s license plate number.
System updates are also planned for passenger carriers: queue reservations for transit bus routes through Ukraine, the ability to re-register shuttle services under a single permit number, and a mechanism for replacing vehicles for non-scheduled transport.
Another new feature will be the one-time use of documents for irregular transport, specifically pages from the Interbus logbook or transport permits. This will prevent the reuse of documents within the system.
For freight transport, users will be allowed to specify T1 customs documents or the TIR Carnet when making a reservation.
A key component will be integration with the id.gov.ua system, facilitating electronic identification of passenger vehicle users.
The contract for developing this new functionality has already been signed. The initial phases will involve establishing a priority system for freight transport and launching an electronic queue for passenger vehicles.
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.