Manufacturing industry, construction, housing and communal services, electrical energy industry and other industries have constant or periodic demand for deliveries of project cargoes.
A research in this segment of the logistics market has been conducted by the specialized business magazine "Container Business". Vitaly Apalikov, the head of project and oversized cargoes department gave his comments to the popular magazine edition.
"Project cargo is a cargo which can’t be moved through the public roads due to its technical characteristics (weight, size). Specifically, project cargos usually are heavyweight and oversized components, processing lines, military machinery, various large industrial and power equipment and other heavy and large size cargoes, which, while transported, may destroy the bridge structures, public road topping, etc. We work out a special project and map a particular route for the shipment of such cargos. We regularly deal with the transportation of construction machinery; disassembled plants; turbines for power plants; generators", - Vitaly Apalikov explains.
"Most of all project cargo shipments are made through major transportation corridors. Their approach is externally simple - from production to the consumer. I can't leave unmentioned the advantages of project cargo transportation by railway. It provides the speed of delivery, the cargo safety and the possibility to overcome challenging routes and to keep moving in difficult weather conditions, which is very important because of the high value of the cargo. But there are some difficulties in choosing this means of transport.
Perhaps the most vexed problem is the expensiveness of railway transportation for the customer in case of extremely oversized cargo", - Vitaly says.
"More oversized the cargo is, more expensive the delivery gets. It is necessary to build additional transshipping complexes for project and heavy cargoes handling on the key railway stations, such as sea and river ports; dead-end branches leading to the factories and industrial complexes; railway stations leading to production fields and military enterprises. Unfortunately, not many closed factories enjoy serious elevator equipment and cranes for transshipment of the project cargo. Almost all equipment for transshipment is concentrated in the hands of private companies. It makes such equipment inaccessible and expensive for transportation to the transshipment points. It is especially complicated to store such cargoes on load sites and temporary storage warehouses, as not all sites and moorings have sufficient margin of safety for storing heavy cargoes.
Normative base should be improved and revised. Construction of facilities for the Sochi Olympic Games 2014 showed that fact more than anything else. Contractors encountered several problems in cargo transportation to the Olympic venues via railway transport. It is necessary to increase the speed of requests processing for the shipments; coordination of designs and drawings; obtaining permits for transportation. The tariff component in project cargo transportation has also changed in recent years. But, unfortunately, it should be noted that the dramatic change towards tariff reductions, which was waited by clients and contractors, did not happen"- Vitaly Apalikov noticed. "Along with all Russian Railways tariffs they have been rising from year to year. It seems that in order to develop the above mentioned industry sectors, the government should allocate funds for the repayment part of the tariffs for transportation of project cargoes from the state budget.
Regarding to the problems in relations between cargo owners, freight forwarding companies and the railway service during such transportation, it should be noted that in general participants of the logistic chain are able to reach a compromise in disputable situations. Obviously such things as insurance, competent survey and organization of security on railway transport help a lot. Client is very hard to please when it comes to expensive and complicated form of transportation. Typically delivery terms are overextended, but not because of the slow motion of the platforms. A combination of the following factors plays its role here: lack of the equipment; lack of the rolling stock (especially transveyers); lack of qualified personnel and lack of the implementation of "Cargo Release Process" at the recipient's station.
It is necessary to think seriously about purchasing new rolling stock and creating the key stocks along the entire Russian Federation. Sometimes clients and contractors face the fact that they have to wait for required rolling stock for months! New technologies and equipment are used in the process of transportation of project cargoes.
New lift cranes and lifting machines are used. But lifting equipment is sorely lacking in the remote parts of our immense country. Sometimes for purchasing a simple lifting beam for equipment transshipment you have to overcome the difficult route and arrangements with private companies "- ACEX Group specialist confirms.
This and other articles written by container transportation specialists you can read more detailed on our website: http://www.acex.net/en/press_center/news/2477/