Bauska Industrial and Logistics Park will offer long-distance drivers a gold-level car park with a hotel, comfortable rest facilities, catering and other amenities.

In 2019, SIA “VISSA” acquired a 23 000-square-metre plot of land in the territory of Bauska Industrial and Logistics Park (BILP) for a leisure and service centre for long-distance drivers. A similar project is already operating in Ādaži, but in Bauska, drivers will have access to an upgraded level of service and more opportunities. Aleksandrs Petrašs, CEO of SIA “VISSA”, believes that Bauska Municipality is the ideal place for such a project.

Thousands of cars every day

Aleksandrs Petrašs says that more than 2000 trucks a day pass through Bauska and its municipality. European Union rules require long-distance drivers to rest for at least 45 minutes every 4.5 hours spent behind the wheel. In Bauska, they will be able to do this in comfortable conditions that meet the European Union’s gold standard, which is close to the highest possible standard.
85% of the truck traffic passing through Bauska is Polish carriers, transporting goods from Eastern Europe to Northern Europe – mainly Finland, but also Estonia – and back. The rest of the international freight carriers are from the Baltics and other European countries.

Gold level according to European standards

In Europe, long-distance driver service centres are graded from bronze to platinum. The SIA “VISSA” long-distance driver service centre in Bauska will be a gold-level car park. This means that the driver will not only be able to get out of the truck, but also eat in a restaurant/diner, relax watching TV or surfing the internet, or carry out mundane tasks like emptying the rubbish or visiting the restrooms. This car park will have secure access; it will be guarded and inaccessible to unauthorised persons.
There will also be 16 hotel rooms where drivers can stay overnight and relax. Aleksandrs Petrašs points out that carriers are already expressing interest in the possibility of using the long-distance driver service centre of SIA “VISSA” and changing their route to include the Bauska car park.

How will the Bauska bypass and Rail Baltica affect the plans?

Aleksandrs Petrašs hopes that the Bauska bypass will be built in a few years and that this service centre could be very important. He also has high hopes for BILP, as the future factories and warehouses built there could reduce transport costs for manufacturers and industrialists, encouraging interest in developing production here.
Aleksandrs Petrašius is not daunted by the construction of the Rail Baltica railway, which could supposedly compete with road transport. “Even if the railways take around 20% of the freight away from the car carriers, the long-distance driver service centre will still yield a return; according to current estimates, it will only be able to accommodate 3% of the long-distance vehicle traffic passing through Bauska Municipality.”

Costs rise, optimism remains

Before Covid-19 and also the crisis of the war in Ukraine, the cost of building a long-distance driver service centre was estimated at around € 4.5 million. Petrašs reveals that expenses now have to be recalculated and optimised, but the company’s ambitions are not diminishing. On the contrary, a truck wash is planned to be built here in the future.
There is already a good road leading to the long-distance driver service centre, which, according to Aleksandrs Petrašs, will be used in the foreseeable future and not only by long-distance drivers.
“In my opinion, Bauska Industrial and Logistics Park has high potential for the future, especially when the bypass for Bauska and Rail Baltica is built. Once the factories and logistics centres are built in BILP, Bauska could become an important Baltic transport hub.”