Freight customers

Operating in a highly competitive and volatile market, Russian Railways seeks to provide comprehensive services across all transportation types and expand the range of services available to customers. Advanced logistics technologies lie at the centre of our business, ensuring our ability to serve the maximum number of consumers.

In 2022, loaded freight turnover in the Eastern Operating Domain reached an all-time high of 2,376 m tkm/day (up 3.5% y-o-y). The loaded car delivery speed increased to 444.7 km/day, up 2.7 km/day y-o-y.

In 2022, container transportation exceeded the volume of the record year of 2021 to reach 6.52 m TEU. Container shipments departing for Far Eastern Railway ports added 24%. Container transportation from Far Eastern seaports and off-dock dry terminals grew by 13% y-o-y.

Improving the quality of transportation services

Freight Transportation electronic trading platform

The Freight Transportation electronic trading platform (FT ETP) integrates transportation, rolling stock supply, terminal, warehousing and logistics services of Russian Railways’ subsidiaries into a single marketplace. The platform provides shippers with non-discriminatory access to handling, transit, and other transportation services. It offers end-to-end logistics solutions, including multimodal transportation, warehousing and cloud services.

The service currently connects 141 providers (up 13% y-o-y), including 129 rolling stock operators. The number of registered FT ETP clients went up by 10% to 9,000. In 2022, FT ETP saw 890 customers (94.6% of the 2021 figure) using the platform’s services, 986 new users, including 283 identified by paying an invoice (44% of the 2021 figure), and 103,488 railcars provided to customers (87.2% of the 2021 figure). In 2022, the millionth railcar shipment was made via the platform. In total, there were over 209,000 railcars or more than 13 mt of freight transported, including 31,000 plus railcars dispatched in the international segment.

In 2022, Russian Railways expanded its transportation geography and streamlined the logistics for remote and hard-to-reach Russian regions. Online services were launched for railway delivery to Sakhalin using the Vanino–Kholmsk ferry line, as well as to the Yamal Nenets Autonomous Region. We launched a Freight Lots project enabling freight owners and forwarders to register goods to be transported and get market rates online. The Company established a mechanism for non-resident foreign companies to join the platform and implemented a settlement tool for export/import and transit freight shipments. The Group introduced a service for issuing transit declarations for goods transiting through Russia.

Development of cargo transportation in specialised containers

In line with Russian Railways’ strategic goals of setting up a new segment for freight transportation in specialised containers of various formats, projects were developed to provide customers with cars and specialised containers, including hard-top containers for steel coil, open-top containers for coal products, solid municipal waste removal and precious metal ore concentrate, along with bulk containers for pellets and mineral cargo. In October 2022, we transported ore concentrate in big bags using a pilot batch of open-top containers.

Improving the quality of transportation services

In 2022, the Group’s railway network comprised 89 sales offices employing over 250 people. Since their inception in September 2017, sales offices have helped boost our revenues (RUB 41.8 bn in 2022, or up 72% y-o-y). In the reporting period, Russian Railways acquired 4,015 new customers who signed contracts for opening unified personal accounts (up 14% y-o-y). An intensive effort is underway to improve sales offices’ competences in active sales and customer service. The Company keeps expanding the range of its one-stop-shop services. In 2022, the one-stop-shop for locomotive lease on non-public routes using a unified billing account yielded an 18 times y-o-y revenue increase.

In February 2022, we launched an automated CRM system for employees selling the Company’s services in freight transportation.

In 2022, we processed more than 105,000 customer complaints using the FOCUS technology, while the number of customer enquiries returned for revision went down to 8.0% of all enquiries, which is well below 13.3% in 2021.

We set up customer hotlines and provided information to over 550 shippers and consignees in 2022. Dedicated chat rooms were created for businesses operating in key industries and critical transportation areas.

Environmental Calculator

Russian Railways attaches great importance to environmental issues, this is why we gave shippers an opportunity to calculate their environmental impact.

The Company offered its customers the Environmental Calculator in their personal accounts. This tool helps to determine the extent to which GHG emissions are reduced if rail transportation is preferred for any given shipment. We also launched a meter telling customers how many trees they saved by switching to electronic workflow. As a result, more than 90% of shippers chose to use electronic workflow.