OREANDA-NEWS. April 04, 2014. An international scientific and practical conference, "Development of Container and Piggyback Transportation in Russia on the Basis of Terminal and Logistics Centers", was held in Moscow.

The conference was organised by the Guild of Forwarders, a non-profit partnership, with support from Russian Railways, the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and TransContainer.

It was attended by Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, Anatoly Krasnoshchek, Senior Vice President, Salman Babaev, Vice President, and representatives from the Ministry of Transport, Russia's Federal Tariff Service, transport associations, and the expert and business communities.

As was noted at the conference, the development of container and piggyback transport using road semi-trailers on rail, has a high potential in Russia.

According to Vladimir Yakunin, the increase in the volume of cargo transported in containers, the creation of the necessary infrastructure and the development of world-class 3-4PL transport and logistics services in intermodal transport is very topical both for Russian Railways and for the other participants on the transport market.

"The organisation of the transport and logistics business in the field of freight transportation is becoming increasingly important. It is already insufficient just to provide rolling stock and just to transport freight - we also need to ensure an uninterrupted supply chain from the producer to the consumer," said the head of Russian Railways.

The Integrated Transport And Logistics Company should play the primary role in this work.

"Today, all the preliminary agreements with government agencies to establish the Integrated Transport And Logistics Company have been completed and the documents to establish the company sent to the Government of the Russian Federation for a final decision," said Vladimir Yakunin.

According to experts, the Integrated Transport And Logistics Company's operations will create the conditions for increasing the volume of transit container traffic carried by national railway companies in the direction of China - Europe to one million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) by 2020.

As Russian Railways' Vice President Salman Babaev noted, at the moment moves to the Company's new business model as an international transport and logistics holding are being implemented.

One of the directions to achieve the holding's strategic development is to increase the share of container traffic and its integration into comprehensive transportation and logistics solutions.

After analysing the structure of freight turnover on the railways of the Russian Federation during the period up to 2030, it was found that at an average annual freight growth rate of 2%, the main growth driver will be containerised cargo, which at the moment only accounts for 7% of the total turnover, but will grow faster than the market until 2030. A forecast annual average growth of 6.4% in container freight will lead to a doubling of the share of container traffic in the overall structure of the market before 2030.

To increase the level of containerisation and attract potential freight flows onto Russia's rail network, Russian Railways, together with foreign partners, including within the framework of specialised international organisations, is carrying out systematic work aimed at realising the country's transit potential by integrating domestic rail transport into the Eurasian and the global transport systems.

Currently, more than 10 Russian companies and joint ventures with the participation of the Russian Federation are involved in international European and Eurasian container traffic, including RZD Logistics, TransContainer, Trans Eurasia Logistics, Far East Land Bridge Ltd, TransContainer-Europe GmbH and others.

In addition to the development of container transport, the Russian Railways' holding is working on the creation and implementation of a new service, piggyback transport, which involves utilising several modes of transport to carry one freight consignment.

"Piggyback transport has long been successfully used abroad and is an alternative to delivering freight by road, although in some cases it can complement road freight. It reduces freight traffic on the roads, and in areas where road links are difficult, piggyback transport is the best option," said Salman Babaev, Vice President at Russian Railways.

According to Babaev, the development of this type of transport in Russia is essential to create and build the necessary infrastructure, make changes to the regulatory framework and develop both simplified customs clearance procedures for piggyback trains and the tariff conditions. Russian Railways is now actively working on all these issues.