26


Issue 1 2013


///RUSSIA/EASTERN EUROPE


Coming in from the cold


Even for many years aſter the fall of the Berlin Wall and the events of 1990 that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was still regarded as a step too far for many freight operators. But with a still prosperous economy – in contrast to much of the rest of Europe – improving ports and roads and a reduction in red tape, it is a market that the industry can no longer afford to ignore.


DB Schenker reaches deep into Russia


A daily service from the UK to Moscow is one of the first fruits of global forwarder’s Let’s Go East campaign to develop business in Russia and eastern Europe. The Russian capital is served via DB Schenker’s hub in Berlin with a transit time of seven days, door to door, compared with twice-weekly in the past. “We believe this is ahead of market expectations,” explains Carl Noble, DB Schenker Logistics UK trade lane development


manager. At the same time, DB Schenker


aims to ensure that its customers don’t receive too many surprises of the unwanted kind. An important strand of the Let’s Go East campaign is customer education, to ensure that consignments get to the Russian recipient with as little drama as possible. “For example, we’ve drawn up a customs check- list to ensure that the process is


reasonably fail-safe,” Noble


explains. For example, Customs like invoices to be printed in black but signed in blue ink and that weights and tariff codes are correct. This is good practice whatever the destination, of course, but whereas in some other places it may mean only a few days’ delay to consignments, in Russia goods might end up having to be returned to the sender or even seized and sold by Customs. In common with most freight


Link from Ust-Luga


intermodal operator, being part of the GCS transportation group. The


service will serve


General Motors Korea, which signed a contract in February 2011 with Russian motor manufacturer GAZ to assemble its Chevrolet Aveo, but space on the trains will be offered to third parties. Ruscon loaded two pilot


Logistics operator GCS’s Ruscon subsidiary has launched a rail service from the new Ust-Luga Container Terminal to Nizhniy


Novgorod. Nizhniy Novgorod, 1100km from the port, is Russia’s fifth largest city. Ruscon is a logistics and


trains at Ust-Luga in early December, delivering 118 containers to the new assembly plant in Nizhniy Novgorod. It uses its own flat-car wagons for the trains and recently set up its own office in Ust-Luga.


services from the UK to Russia, Moscow and St Petersburg accounts for the lion’s share of DB Schenker’s traffic – around 85% - but the forwarder can offer a nationwide service via its own domestic freight network that covers the entire country. The forwarder has some big domestic customers that it serves with this system which handles mainly, though not exclusively, palletised freight using a fleet of 250 in-house trucks with a few subcontractors to reach the more remote areas. “We think this is quite a unique service and it’s certainly the jewel in our crown,” says Carl Noble. With the distances involved, are


services not generally


overnight but it is possible to get from the UK to Krasnoyarsk in 11 days or Novosibirsk in 19 days – no mean achievement considering that these places are well on the way to the Far East. With the encouragement of


the Russian government, which recently moved to decentralise customs clearance away from Moscow in favour of regional hubs, forwarders like DB Schenker are seeking to develop direct services into the regions rather than go via the capital with its mounting congestion problems – though it will probably take time before direct services specifically from the UK to the Russian regions become viable. International freight


flows into Russia are still heavily skewed towards Moscow and St Petersburg, which account for around 80% of freight movement but only around 40% of the population, so on paper at least there should be scope for more direct services to certain regions such as Kaluga, the centre of the Russian car industry. Another likely development


from DB Schenker’s eastern campaign are direct services to the Balkan region from the UK. These would be hubbed via Riga and would most likely operate via a ferry service from the North-east of England. Introduction is expected round about the third quarter of 2013.


Taking a broad view of rail


The Russian government has ambitious plans to build a Russian- gauge (1520mm line) all the way into the heart of Europe as far as Vienna, although these are unlikely to get off the ground for another 13 years at least, despite having the avowed support of the European Union transport commissioner, Siim Kallas.


This would avoid the need for potentially time-consuming and troublesome transhipment at the border break-of-gauge point but would be expensive. Poland has also pointed out


that it too has a Russian-gauge line penetrating its territory – the Soviet Union built a number of such lines in its East European client states for


military reasons – which could be connected to Germany and central Europe at lower cost, it argues. Yet another possible


solution might be the German CargoBeamer technology, whose proponents point out can shiſt complete trainloads from one train to another in as little as 15 minutes. (See FBJ 6 2012, page 1)


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