Using electronic consignment notes and shipping documents will become mandatory for all freight shipments, including by rail, effective 1 September 2026. However, only road transport is currently fully covered by this system, at least at this point. How are preparations for the digital transition going for shipments by rail, air and sea? In your opinion, is the railway sector ready for this transition?
The Electronic Shipping Document State Information System, or GIS EPD, has existed for three years as a voluntary option for road freight transport. There was a proactive effort to create a legal framework, including formats, orders and directives, for enabling other means of transport to use this solution.
Using GIS EPD will be mandatory starting 1 September for any shipments by road, rail, and air. This framework will become mandatory for shipments by sea later; for now, it will remain voluntary for shipments within the country.
There have been many issues with introducing this system in the rail sector, since Russian Railways has a system of its own. It is called ETRAN. To avoid any overlap and having to submit the same information twice, there was a dedicated decision as set forth in Government Resolution No. 470. Under this document, RZD customers will not have to use GIS EPD to generate their electronic consignment notes for rail shipments if they already use ETRAN, and they can continue to use this system.
The key change is that Russian Railways will be able to feed ETRAN data into the state system, but only after signing a corresponding agreement with the customer. This possibility will be provided as a new option (customers will have to tick the relevant box) as part of additional offers. This is expected to provide for a seamless transition to an e-document workflow, considering that 92 percent of customers have already switched to e-documents when working with the Russian Railways.
Despite all these advances, there is a need to accumulate data on all types of shipments within a single state-run system to achieve the objective of creating a multimodal electronic consignment note. It is for this reason that the multimodal electronic transport consignment note will be available starting 1 September. There will be a beta phase for ensuring that digital dataflows on various means of transport are seamless.
Your association has been consistent in promoting the concept of the National Digital Transport and Logistics Platform (NDTLP). Its main purpose consists of seamlessly bringing all kinds of transport under a single umbrella. In your opinion, how will the integration of the rail sector into this single digital platform go?
It would be impossible to create the National Digital Transport and Logistics Platform (NDTLP) without railways. There will be a step-by-step approach to integrating all means of transport into this platform, since apart from adding various elements to the platform this also includes creating a single digital framework for all logistics operators.
Creating a one-stop-shop mechanism and offering it to all the parties within the shipping industry will be a key step. It will make it possible for businesses to submit data within a single interface, while making it easier for federal government agencies that are tasked with supervising this sector to do their job. But in order to be effective, this system must switch to an e-document workflow. Otherwise, traceability would be impossible.
To adopt a one-stop-shop approach, you need unified standards, including a single digital format and uniform requirements governing data transfers. This will ensure the traceability of goods and would enable shippers to track their cargoes in real time, as well as receive updates on the processing status.
It goes without saying that the rail segment will be one of the key elements within this national digital transport and logistics platform. After all, railways play a fundamental role in cargo shipments, transits, exports and imports. E-documents, single standards, data exchanges, cargo tracking and digital profiles of the parties involved in shipping operations will all be included in this integration effort.
In April, the Digital Transport and Logistics Association and the Eurasian Economic Commission signed a joint action plan for 2026 and 2027 to promote the digital transformation and autonomous solutions. You have talked about the need to scale Russia’s experience and establish a joint working group for devising single standards, including an effort to develop digital platforms. In your opinion, is a transition to a single digital framework within the EAEU possible? To what degree, in your opinion, are countries ready to achieve this level of integration? Will Russia’s experience remain relevant, to begin with?
The only way to create a single space is to share our experiences. We must move beyond discussing our best practices and start using them. Our core mission consists of enabling national platforms in specific countries to interact between each other. This means that there must be single standards for ensuring a seamless e-document flow across our space. This will be a priority task for the next five years.
The integration will have to be carried out one step at a time, since different countries are going through different stages in their digital transition. Those of them who have already adopted digital systems, for example, in sealing, will have to harmonise their technical requirements. As for countries with a lower level of digital adoption, they would have to rely on external best practices. Integrating digital tools into business processes is easy and cost-effective. I do not expect any challenges in this regard, apart from the political context.
Our association has been carrying out pilot projects involving the electronic consignment notes (eCMR) for road freight transport in Belarus, and we intend to expand this initiative to other countries too. The EAEU offers its own data bus as a single platform serving as an interface for interacting with foreign systems and making it easier to import goods. This is a very convenient tool, and it is voluntary too. We must make this system effective and attractive for businesses. This way, they will not have to be forced to use it, but will do it out of their own free will.
You have mentioned the signing of a general plan with the Eurasian commission. What do you plan to do in the near future on this front? Do you plan holding any forums together with the NDTLP?
True, this does imply a major communications effort. We are ready to share the practices we have, including our regulatory sandboxes for testing various solutions and sharing them with our colleagues. We will release a plan for these efforts soon with a detailed description of what we want to do and where.
As for the national digital transport and logistics platform, which consists of a pilot project with a one-stop-shop service, we will work with our colleagues from the EAEU and study their state information systems and shipping requirements. These analytics will be fed into the state platform for developing regulatory amendments and adjusting business processes.
The Eurasian Economic Commission operates within the framework as set forth by the Treaty on the EAEU. In the transport sector, international convention limit its authority. Countries work together in terms of oversight and monitoring, while the rest remains unregulated. There has been a lot of talk lately about devising a legislative framework for governing autonomous technology. In this connection, has there been any discussion about giving the commission more authority to enact cross-cutting agreements across the EAEU space?
We did discuss ways in which the association could offer its assistance in terms of technical regulations and standards, as well as sharing business practices and cases so that they can be tested.
The association is not the only platform for developing technical requirements and regulations within the Eurasian Economic Commission. Our cooperation consists of sharing real-world practices and ensuring effective regulation.
What do you think about launching electronic navigational seals across the EAEU space in terms of creating a single system for tracking shipments and ensuring their traceability? And what do you think about the concerns we have been hearing from some market players that the requirements regarding these seals and the forced transition to e-documents could create additional obstacles, challenges and drive up costs?
The digital transition is designed to enhance business performance instead of simply complicating the existing processes. Efforts to develop electronic consignment documents start with analysing the current business processes.
I believe that shipping documents which were not properly regulated at the time when they existed only as hard copies will pose the greatest challenge. At the same time, for established and streamlined processes, for example, in air and road freight transport, this should not pose any technical problems. But the main difficulties will arise where the digital transition creates completely new mechanisms of interaction, to which market participants will have to get used. In addition to this, there is also the need to overcome a general sense of denial regarding anything new, which can be viewed as an inevitable stage in this process. The digital transition would be impossible without it.
As for the electronic seals, they have already proven their effectiveness, since their application to transit shipments has helped reduce the share of illegal tobacco imports by 15 percent. They have proven their worth as a useful tool for ensuring the traceability of shipments and monitoring goods, which creates value for shipping agents.
That said, the level of digital maturity across EAEU countries will be the defining factor in terms of setting pace for implementing this system within the union. States will have an important task of controlling tariffs and preventing any grey schemes at the ports of entry to our countries.
Russia and Belarus have been effective in relying on this system since early 2025. The pilot project has demonstrated its effectiveness, suggesting to the two countries that they are ready to scale it up. February 2026 marked the official launch of international shipments as per the agreement on using navigational seals across the EAEU countries.
Russia and Kazakhstan carried out the first cross-border autonomous freight shipment this year, coupled with launching autonomous deliveries through the border with China. In your opinion, is there a lot of potential for autonomous freight shipments in terms of technology and from an economic perspective, and what could be the next steps to develop shipments of this kind? What could be the obstacles along this path?
I suggest that we start by unpacking what this means. We have the world’s biggest country, which means that expanding roads for better connectivity has always been a number one priority. This means that matters dealing with autonomous transport have to do with whether remote territories can receive shipments and operate within the same economic environment as other regions that have roads. This is what autonomous transport is for. Its mission consists of facilitating regional development in remote territories.
Second, autonomous technology can have a real impact on long-distance shipments across the country. In fact, this was the concept behind the Autonomous Logistics Corridors project. Why? Because autonomous road freight shipments must cover very long distances to create added value. This means that you do not need a driver anymore. For a vehicle, it is like entering a corridor while being driven by a remote operator. One operator will be able to monitor up to 20 vehicles at the same time.
Moreover, this is expected to address the shortage of drivers and the labour shortage on the market. One operator can monitor several vehicles at the same time. Based on real-world analytics, shipping companies argue that autonomous shipments can help reduce business costs by up to 25 percent — this is the indicator that must be our objective. Having vehicles move along the roads on their own could make this happen. The solution is expected to become available starting in 2028 once the federal law governing highly-automated transport vehicles comes into effect. This way, autonomous vehicles will be able to use federal roads. We will start with motorways with mobile coverage, which are like corridors without any crossings or traffic lights.
As for the railways, we have much more experience in this sector compared to vehicles. Our colleagues have been working on it for 10 years now. Moscow has been at the forefront in this regard with the driverless Lastochka trains, tramways and the metro. I believe that driverless locomotives operating in Russia’s remote regions would demonstrate the highest efficiency. Russian Railways has been working on this solution for 10 years now, and has accumulated a wealth of experience on AI. When we started working on vehicle transport, our colleagues asked the rail sector to share its expertise in artificial intelligence models.
Autonomous technologies will develop across all means of transport. This is the future. We had a debate on whether we needed autonomous trucks and whether to keep this project going.
Today, Russia is among the only five countries that are working on civilian autonomous technology. Giving up on this initiative would result in economic backwardness. Our drone makers export their solutions. You may be surprised to learn that they are already supplying them to countries such as the UAE, not only Kazakhstan.
Could you share what you think about our ERAI index? As you know, this is one of the few, if not the only railway index which reflects the cost of transit container shipments between Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus. This means from one border to another. How useful is a tool such as an index for analysing railways freight transport considering that the digital transition is gaining traction? What role could it play? If you are already familiar with our tool, how could we further improve this index, in your opinion?
Our goal is to strike a balance in the transport sector, from an economic perspective. Without indicators and indices this would have been an impossible feat. Why do we need them? We can hear that cargo shipments declined along a specific route, for example, from north to south or from west to east. But it remains anyone’s guess why this happened, so our colleagues have to invest their time to reach out to analysts and learn what caused this decline. Could it be that some routes were blocked? Or could it be that there was a shortage of containers or train cars somewhere? What we need is to be informed about the ongoing developments in real time.
Freight forwarders need ERAI as a decision-making tool. It ensures market transparency and enables its players to get objective information on tariffs, demand trends and whether any given rail route is competitive. The index helps assess the cost of transit container shipping along the Eurasian rail corridor and compare these costs with alternative offers. The second major element regarding this index is that it offers analytics. There is no getting away from these elements in the present-day economy. You must have clear benchmarks in logistics to be able to negotiate. This index already serves as a benchmark when setting the terms of transit container shipping contracts.
