Multi-ton trucks - Newspaper Kommersant No. 13 (7458) dated 01/25/2023
The State Duma Committee on Transport proposed amendments to the legislation, according to which it will be possible to cross the border by car only with a preliminary reservation of the date and time. The idea initially pretty scared the citizens, but the authorities assured that the rules would not apply to passenger cars. The trucking market, meanwhile, welcomes changes that could cut days-long queues and provide drivers with basic amenities. However, the companies want the date and time reservation to be really free, as the authors of the idea promise, and equally accessible, and also take into account the risks of speculation with the reserved time.
The State Duma Committee on Transport approved draft amendments to the law on roads and road activities in the Russian Federation, providing for the preliminary reservation of time for crossing the state border of the Russian Federation by road. But on January 24, the project was withdrawn for revision amid unrest among citizens who accepted the restrictions at their expense. A wide range of officials, from the author of the amendments, the head of the committee Yevgeny Moskvichev, to the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, had to assure the Russians that the new rules would only apply to trucks, not touching private cars.
According to the project, a new procedure is planned to be introduced at automobile checkpoints, the list of which will be determined by the government. The rules, according to the original version of the amendments, apply to vehicles owned by "Russian carriers, foreign carriers, citizens of the Russian Federation, foreign citizens, stateless persons and other road users."
We are talking about the development of a procedure for booking a date and time, control of the arrival of transport (points must be equipped with means of forced stopping of transport), a procedure for ensuring the possibility of passage.
A list of requirements for the arrangement of sites at the entrances to such checkpoints is being established, including the availability of parking areas with fencing, markings, lighting, garbage containers and free toilets and water supply. It should be possible to equip such parking lots with food outlets and shops.
As Evgeny Moskvichev explains, the goal is to eliminate these queues at some checkpoints where there are long queues.
“Drivers stand for 10-15 days, there is no food, no toilets - nothing, a live queue, the regime of work and rest is not respected,” he says, citing the Zabaikalsk, Upper Lars, Yarag-Kazmalyar border crossings as an example. According to him, the document is likely to come into force on September 1, and the application through which the date and time will be booked will be public and free.
The electronic queue system has already worked in test mode at some border crossings, reminds Novelco CEO Grigory Grigoriev, for example, in Zabaikalsk, where at the end of 2021 there were large traffic jams due to coronavirus restrictions and up to 1.5 thousand cars accumulated. “As a result, there were significant shortcomings in the system,” he says. “Thus, some drivers registered in the queue long before they arrived at the border crossing. Because of this, the cars that actually drove up to the border did not have enough free slots, and they were forced to wait. In addition, there were also “paper” lists, which led to more chaos.” (More about the situation at the Zabaikalsk checkpoint see "Kommersant" dated August 10, 2021).
“Any organization of a live queue helps to optimize the process,” says Yevgeny Utkin, head of interaction with infrastructure and industry organizations of the Delovye Linii Group of Companies. “Therefore, new amendments can speed up border crossing, reduce truck downtime and, accordingly, increase the throughput of border points.” In addition, he adds, an electronic queue can evenly distribute vehicle flows among time slots and guarantee the receipt of services within a specified period. It is still premature to make any forecasts about how much, if implemented, it will be possible to increase the speed of border crossing, now it is still premature, says Alexander Shilinchuk, Deputy General Director for Road Transportation of TRASCO, “but the fact that drivers, instead of waiting for arrival at the border, where amenities are very limited, will be able to arrive at the border crossing already by the time it is crossed – this is an unambiguously positive indicator.”
Exist "Strategy for the Development of the Customs Service until 2030", explains the general director of the KBT customs broker Yulia Shlenskaya, one of the components of which is the creation of intelligent checkpoints. The creation of electronic queues is an element of this strategy. A bill of similar content was discussed in 2013 by the Federal Customs Service and the Ministry of Economy, but it was shelved, she says.
“In general, this is just an extrapolation of good experience: since 2011, a similar approach has been used on the Russian-Estonian border from Estonia, for example,” says Yulia Shlenskaya. It's comfortable. But, as often happens, the bills are not presented to the public at the most opportune moment. People are already nervous about various sharp newsbreaks, and because of their tendency not to read beyond the headlines, they succumb to panic, as if the border is being locked up. But here we are talking about the convenience of crossing the state border.”
And in the bill - "apparently because of this hysteria" - categories of transport appear and disappear.
“At first it was about all categories, then they added comments about trucks, then they removed them,” she notes. “It is not yet clear what categories this is waiting for. But, in our opinion, it makes no sense to differentiate private and commercial transport. If you do it, then do it for everyone.”
According to Yevgeny Dyatlov, head of the procurement department for international transportation of FM Logistic in Russia, a similar system was in effect in Belarus for several years, it was canceled last year. “The carrier on the electronic portal reserved a convenient free date of arrival at special waiting areas at the border,” he says. “Entry there is paid, while the passage of the car through it is mandatory. This helped carriers to plan the time of arrival at the place of waiting, which in general had a positive effect on transit times and delivery times.”
This scheme, says Mr. Dyatlov, does not affect the number of queues - it is their systematization and organization of rest areas for drivers. “Yes, transport companies need to hire employees to reserve a check-in date, but when managing a large fleet, these costs are negligible. In general, the increase in the costs of transport companies under such a system is not critical.” However, he believes, it is necessary to provide for possible risks, for example, speculation in reserving free windows for arrival. “The checkpoints under this scheme must be equipped with special closed parking lots for drivers to rest,” he believes. “In addition, a portal should function to reserve the time of arrival at the waiting place, templates for contracts for parking services and the provision of paid services have been prepared.” The founder of VIG Trans, Igor Rebelsky, notes that when the law is adopted, queues can be expected, there will be calls to the service that services this electronic queue, because either people will not understand how to use it, or, perhaps, something will not work. But, since there is no large cargo flow now, there will hardly be a big disturbance or collapse. “In general, as experience shows, an electronic queue, when it is fully functional, is only a plus for everyone,” he says.
According to Mr. Shilinchuk, the key point is how the system will be technically implemented.
“The queuing service, originally announced as free, must necessarily remain so,” he is sure, “because practice shows that in the case of a paid service, various bypass schemes and the formation of several queues are possible, which will lead to additional difficulties. If everything is implemented transparently and honestly, and all the nuances are properly taken into account, the integration of such a system will become a good and effective practice in the logistics industry.” Pre-booking should minimize the load on the border area due to truck queues and long idle times, says Ivan Golovko, head of international trucking Russia and the CIS countries at Noytech Supply Chain Solutions. Also, the system will help reduce accidents on the roads, which occurs due to the accumulation of cars at the entrances to border crossings, and will reduce the number of corruption abuses in the presence of a live queue.
