A round table “Digital Future of Transport Industry” was held within the framework of the XI International Exhibition-Forum “Transport of Russia”. The event was attended by Aleksey Semenov, Director of the Department for Development Programmes of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, Alexander Lashkevich, Head for Interaction with Infrastructure and Industry Organisations of Delovye Linii Company, Kirill Vlasov, STS Logistics Director, Evgeny Charkin, Information Technologies Director of Russian Railways, Roman Veselov, Director for Informatization of TransContainer PJSC, Gleb Kinder, Vice-President and Chairman of the Committee for Transport of OPORA ROSSII, Anton Zamkov General Director of RT-Invest Transport Systems LLC (operator of the state system “Platon”), as well as freight forwarders, start-up entrepreneurs and leading experts of the transport industry.
The round table discussed the issues of ensuring the safety of the Russian transport system in the process of universal digitalisation, ways of transition to the digital economy and the need to create services for freight forwarders and users of transport services.
Aleksey Semenov, Director of the Department of Development Programmes of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, said that the agency was implementing a policy to maximise the use of the infrastructure created to develop services in the field of road transport and logistics.
“Today, practically no company can independently create such an infrastructure as the state system “Platon” exploits. It is a support system whereupon the digital services both in the interests of the state and market participants should be developed. We are now working on the creation of an electronic sealing system based on it and plan to integrate with a weight-control system. A system for controlling the temperature regime for the transport of perishable goods is being elaborated as well. The role of the “Platon” system for ensuring non-stop and efficient operation of transport corridors (Western Europe-Western China, North-South), optimisation of the functioning of transport and logistics chains and improving the efficiency of transport systems is obvious”, Aleksey Semenov explained.
Anton Zamkov, General Director of RT-Invest Transport System LLC, added that the data processed by the “Platon” system was interesting for business: carriers and service companies.
“As developers of the IT platform “Platon”, we see that the created system provides rather wide opportunities. The “Platon” system is the first large-scale step towards digitalisation of the whole cargo transportation industry. Today, it can become the basis for the ecosystem of digital services in transport and the solution of the state priority tasks for the modernisation and enhancement of the efficiency of the transport industry in the country. We need to develop a transport-logistics ecosystem of a new generation. Intellectual road infrastructure should be formed as a single national platform and give not only fiscal effects but be useful to the business and support new development areas. We are already creating services that are necessary for business and the state. What is meant here is the marketplace of orders for transportation, integrated service and payment cards, monitoring and analysis of the truck fleet,” Anton Zamkov explained.
Kirill Vlasov, General Director of STS Logistics, said that the integration of large and medium-sized systems was an effective way for the development of digitalisation. “It would be very good to integrate with the “Platon” system. However, the system is public and provides no opportunity for private companies to integrate. This stage of integration with external systems could give a solution to unique challenges in our market”, said Mr. Vlasov.
Evgeny Charkin, Director for Information Technologies of Russian Railways, said that this year, the company had launched the electronic trading platform of freight traffic that operates in the pilot mode.
“We have already tested and are going to start the integration with the automobile complex in the near future, thereby providing multimodality services. Further, during 2018, we will start provision of additional services such as terminal and warehouse facility, financial services, and insurance. Here it is of fundamental importance that what we are implementing should become a part and the basis of the transport-logistics platform of Russia as a whole. We will be integrated into the existing and already built infrastructures of “Platon” and GLONASS in terms of electronic seal use. Thus, we are absolutely confident that by developing new practices and using the existing ones, we will be able to promote explosive growth to the digital transit corridor in Russia. In this case, it will really be a digital corridor. If the cargo enters the territory of Russia, passes through and leaves it without delay, the automatic integration with the FCS and the tax service takes place, then we will have a tremendous effect for the entire transport industry and the Russian economy as a whole,” concluded Evgeny Charkin.