Planning road transport around nominal crossing times means planning for the best case. In reality the day of the week, the arrival hour and the cargo type affect transit more than the distance between the points.
Three factors that drive the queue
- Day of week: Tuesday and Wednesday are consistently shortest, Monday and Friday longest
- Arrival hour: between 23:00 and 05:00 queues are on average 62% shorter
- Clearance type: vehicles with a pre-lodged declaration use a separate lane
How we build the buffer
The border buffer appears as its own line in the estimate — usually eight or fourteen hours depending on the direction. It is not padding: it is the median of actual figures for that specific crossing over the last ninety days.