Ukrainian Railways will continue to simplify the regulatory framework for cargo transportation

This year, Ukrainian Railways (UZ) will continue to simplify and update the provisions of the regulatory framework for the transportation of goods. This was announced by Andriy Miroshnikov, Deputy Director of the company’s commercial department, Rail.Insider reports.

The work on updating the relevant regulations was also carried out last year, and in 2023 a number of changes were made to the Rules for the transportation of goods, in particular, 11 sections were canceled.

According to Miroshnikov, some proposals were removed altogether, and the procedure for accepting cargo for transportation was simplified. He noted that, conceptually, there is a shift to the shipper and consignee determining how and under what conditions they will transport the cargo, and they should be responsible for this. The railroad and the carrier should not have any regulatory influence on this. A representative of UZ noted that there are certain restrictions on rolling stock, but they should be regulated between the cargo owner and the rolling stock operator (i.e., the owner of the railcars).

In 2023, the range of goods transported in bulk, as well as on open rolling stock, was expanded, and a number of special conditions for the transportation of goods were canceled.

This year, several regulatory documents are planned to be repealed and amended.

In particular, it is planned to abolish the Rules for the forwarding of cargo so that owners can do it independently.

It is also planned to cancel the Rules for the use of railcars and containers. According to Miroshnikov, this segment has already been deregulated by the state. Therefore, all actions related to the use of railcars should be governed by an agreement between the owner of the wagon and the customer of the railcar use services.

In addition, the amendments to the Rules for Sidings Maintenance, namely the simplification of the procedure for signing relevant agreements, and to the Rules for Freight Planning, which will allow for greater use of information technology, simplified communication and transportation orders, are also being considered.

«Over time, each carrier will create its own transportation planning system. In other words, there will be two planning planes in the future: planning between the carrier and the cargo owner and planning between the carrier and the infrastructure operator,» explained Andriy Miroshnikov.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2023, Ukrainian Railways reduced cargo transportation by 1.5% compared to 2022, to 148.4 million tons. At the same time, from March to December 2023, the railroad operator transported an average of 23% more cargo per month than in the same period in 2022. Last year, the transportation of steel products amounted to 8.2 million tons, which is 10.6% less than the previous year. In total, steel industry’s rail freight transportation amounted to 35.7 million tons, which is 24% of the total transportation volume in 2023.