Russian Railways: Almost 90% of Loaded Wagons in Russia Are Processed Online

MOSCOW, June 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The need to offer digital multimodal services was announced by Deputy Director General of Russian Railways Evgeny Charkin at the 24th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum during The Digital Breakthrough in Russian Transport: Quick Wins for the State and Business session.

In his speech, Charkin emphasized the importance of online interactions between Russian Railways and our shippers and passengers.

'For Russian Railways, online interactions are the basis of our digital transformation. In a pandemic, thanks to e-document flows with shippers, we were able to attract new customers. They saw that our services are safe, contactless, and convenient, so they chose us,' he said.

In 2020, more than 21,000 of our partners used legally binding e-documents and more than 3.8 million e-documents were processed. Today, in Russia, 88% of loaded wagons are issued entirely using e-documents. According to Charkin, digital cargo services will continue developing in cooperation with Russia's Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Digital Development.

He also noted the possibility of e-document management: customers—both shippers and passengers—need a seamless multimodal service, and he cited the work that the company is carrying out with Federal Agency for Tourism as an example.

'Together we're building multimodal services in domestic tourism. This is an important field for us, and railroad is one of its key elements.'

Complex multimodal services are now also offered in international cargo transportation, and we are taking part in the INTERTRAN international project (for the delivery of containers in intermodal traffic).

'Along with FESCO, consignors, consignees, and customs authorities, we have implemented a pilot project for rail/port interaction on the Yokohama–Vladivostok–Moscow route,' Charkin noted at the session. 'The market reaction has been positive, because on average we have reduced transportation times by four days, having completely switched to e-documents.'