STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP OF CARGO OWNERS AND LOGISTICS OPERATOR

A round table on the topic “Strategic partnership between a cargo owner and a logistics operator: problems and prospects” was held at the National expert platform “TransExpert.kz”.

According to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of NC KTZ JSC, Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the Union of Transport Workers of Kazakhstan “KAZLOGISTICS” Yuri Lavrinenko, one of the important points for resolving the accumulated issues is the revival of the systemic role of the state holding company “Kazakhstan Temir Zholy”, working to improve the efficiency of all railway complex and domestic economy.

“Currently, there are certain distortions in the understanding of this among the authorized state bodies, in the stubborn transformation of the national company over a number of years into a commercial company aimed at making a profit. This bias needs to be changed. Also lobbying under the slogan of expanding the liberalization of the market, admission to the main railway network of private carriers to the detriment of the interests of small and medium-sized businesses, the state and the population. There are distortions in providing technical and technological support for transit promotion, reducing attention to the promotion of local cargo and meeting the export and import needs of small and medium-sized businesses,” Yu. Lavrinenko said.

In her welcoming speech, Saltanat Amirgalieva, President-Rector of the Academy of Logistics and Transport, dwelled on the processes taking place in the field of transport education.

“All the strategic directions, the mission, the main vision of the Academy are closely related to the promising areas of the transport and logistics industry – these are digitalization, automation, robotization,” she emphasized.

Eduard Kaplan, Chairman of the Scientific and Expert Council of the Research and Design Institute of Transport and Communications, spoke about the key aspects that affect the quality of transport and logistics services for cargo owners in railway transport.

In his presentation, he acquainted the participants of the meeting with the “Target of Goals”, aimed at improving the quality and efficiency of the organization of rail transportation of goods.

“If we take a comprehensive and systematic approach to solving the issues that have accumulated in the field of freight rail transport, move in parallel in all these areas, actively approach their solution, then the process will improve,” says E. Kaplan.

During his speech, the speaker presented the “Quick Wins” plan, which allows to get the maximum socio-economic effect at the lowest cost.

“After analyzing, we came to the conclusion that it is necessary to improve the turnover of wagons, which at all times was considered the main indicator of the efficiency of the railway. To solve this problem, a strategic partnership between the cargo owner and the logistics operator is needed. When a cargo owner chooses one or several logistics partners and polishes the entire logistics chain with him,” emphasizes E. Kaplan.

Improving the turnover of the wagon fleet will allow, according to him, to reduce the transportation costs of cargo owners, improve the quality of logistics services for the cargo owner, and increase the profitability of the logistics operator.

“It is paradoxical that this seemingly obvious situation, in practice, leads to the opposite effect. It is easier for a cargo owner to pay fines than to justify investments in the development of their industrial logistics to shareholders. The operator, in turn, also does not strain, because he still receives money for the demurrage of the wagons. In recent years, the national carrier has noted a sharp drop in the turnover of wagons and output in tonnage per wagon. A not very good situation is being created: the deficit is changing with a surplus of wagons. With the deterioration of the turnover of wagons, there are not enough of them, no matter how many there are on the line, they are always not enough, therefore the efficiency of their use decreases,” says a representative of the scientific institute.

The President of the Association “Partnership for Transport and Logistics in Central Asia” Berik Bulekbaev spoke about practical cases of the development of industrial logistics.

So, according to him, the total number of access roads in Kazakhstan today is 3468 km, the total length of all access roads is 11474 km. This is a fairly large market to be reckoned with.

The speaker told the participants of the meeting about implemented practical cases that did not require large financial costs, but allowed to optimize processes in industrial railway transport and increase the efficiency of the entire enterprise.

Nikolai Tushin, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor of the Ural State University of Railways, devoted his report to the issues of calculating the economic effect from the implementation of railway infrastructure development projects.

“For all the importance of the stages of evaluating investment projects, forecasting flows, economic calculations and risk assessment, many mistakes are made at the stage of designing technological or operational models,” says N. Tushin.

According to him, problems often lie in the choice of technology and solutions, which are based on the intuition of executives, or on the current instructions of stations and nodes.

“The fact is that the existing instruction is theoretically illiterate, and practically even harmful and dangerous. It is based on many theoretically erroneous, although outwardly plausible, solutions. For example, when calculating the throughput of a transport object, its interaction with other transport objects is not taken into account. Whereas it is necessary to work together,” says N. Tushin, noting that in order to neutralize such effects, active dispatch and logistics management is applied in practice.

According to Yerbolat Nazarbekov, Executive Director for organizing access to the MZhS branch of NC “KTZ” – “Directorate of the main network”, any problem in the logistics scheme depends on the technical condition and capacity of the main railway network.

“As part of the interaction of connecting stations with industrial routes, much depends on the planning by the industrial enterprises themselves of the volumes that the backbone network can really pass today. The factor of uneven loading that does not correspond to unloading, mass loading in one quarter is above the norm, and many other problems are solved by point planning, taking into account the interests of industrial enterprises and the railway itself,” the speaker noted.

Representatives of the industrial and transport sector, expert consultant in the field of transport and logistics, Yermek Temirbaev, Head of the Strategic, Investment Planning and QMS Department of TransCom, Andrey Melikhov, General Director IFC COLOS Aidar Zakarin, Executive Director of LLP “Kazphosphate” Nurlan Igembaev, Director of PZHT “Azurite railway solutions” Murat Sharubekov.

Source: National expert platform “TransExpert.kz”