By the instruction of the Government of the Russian Federation, a unified system for marking goods with control ID marks should be created by 2024. It is expected that most of consumer goods sold, manufactured and imported to Russia should be marked uniformly by that time.

So far, providers of integrated logistics services have marked goods themselves before importing them to the EEU territory. TELS Group is now working on a project aimed to prepare for mandatory tire labelling in accordance with new requirements.

TELS’s experts tell about the scope of work to be done for logistics providers to ensure smooth transition to the new labeling system.

Alexander Ustimovich, a Leading Key Account Expert:

“Mandatory tire labeling will come into effect on December 1, 2019. Our company works with global tire manufacturers, so we need to provide a reliable labeling service to retain the existing clients and attract new customers in the tire industry.

We are now building new schemes. We have selected the major suppliers of warehouse services, agreed on the prices for labeling truck and passenger tires, made a list of transport companies ready to perform trial and regular deliveries. We are still negotiating with warehousing enterprises which can become alternative service providers in case of a sharp increase in traffic.

We have made it possible for our company to be included in the working group based on the CRPT (translated as Center for Advanced Technology Development), which comprises the representatives of the leading tire companies. The next stage implies trial transportations and labeling. The CRPT have opened the trial period for tire labeling from June 20 to November 30, 2019. But so far there has been no detailed information about the stages, requirements for the participants or recommendations.”

Vitaly Polik, Deputy Director of Groupage Services Department:

“Presently, even the CRPT members cannot give reliable answers to the following questions: How will the unique code be placed on tires – with Data Matrix code or an RFID tag? and How will it be transferred to manufacturers/logistics operators for further labelling? There are several ways of tire labeling, but the recommendations will be developed only after trial experiments. All the importers and manufacturers are preparing to receive the codes in the Personal Account of the CPRT, and we are already preparing to receive these codes and organizing the infrastructure and IT solutions for applying them to tires.”

Logistics providers organizing imports of the unmarked products integrate labeling services into transportation schemes:

There is no doubt that by the time the requirements for mandatory tire labeling are introduced, TELS’s customers will have no problems importing their tire products. We are preparing for the changes consistently and technologically.

TELS office in Prague existing since 2011 was merged into a new transportation division of TELS CARGO in the Czech Republic in order to build service capacities of TELS Group of Companies and optimize cargo delivery schemes.

The Department of Business Analytics and Strategic Planning of TELS Group of Companies made a report on road freight from / to EU - Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan (import, export).

Exports from the above-mentioned CIS countries to the EU showed high growth in Q1 2019 against the same period in the previous year. Ukraine’s growth, however, averaged slightly over 4%.

Imports revealed a slightly negative trend only to the Russian Federation (-2.1%), a slight increase was seen to the Republic of Belarus (+2.7%). Imports to Ukraine showed good growth (8.3%). Transportations to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are growing rapidly (+21.1% and +38.6% respectively), at the same time physical volumes stay small here.

The aggregate road freight market in this geographic segment increased by 14.1% in exports (to 5798 thousand tons) and by 2.4% in imports (to 4644 thousand tons).

Source: Eurostat

Comments by TELS Senior Managers

Oleg Germanovich, chief officer in Minsk office of TELS Group of Companies: “Looking back at work in Q1 2019, there were no noticeable shocks affecting the volume of goods to our target markets. The volume of FTL services in Minsk office increased by 11% in the first quarter of the current year over the same period in the previous year. A decrease in sales profitability from January to March is one of the noticeable trends in the first quarter. The increasing competition, especially in high-level segments, is preparing us both for an increase in the sales of services and a decrease in transaction profitability. This is how we have been working over the last 2 years – “If you want to make money, process large volumes”, which can be resolved by modernizing business processes in the company and optimizing cargo delivery schemes.”

Dmitry Stasevich, chief officer in Kiev office of TELS Group of Companies: “Kiev office fulfilled 100% and more of KPIs set in Q1 2019. Given the average market performance, we maintained the high rate and increased road transportation services by 28% over Q1 2018. As a result, our market share has increased. But the country is in for difficult times and changes, which will also affect our activities.”

Olga Korotkova, Head of the Automobile Transportation Department in Moscow: “The first quarter was prosperous for Moscow office. Exports to Finland and Estonia increased noticeably by 2.3 times in total, imports from Finland – by 16%. Exports to the Balkan countries saw an increase of 20%. Despite the lack of transport from / to Kazakhstan and problems at Kazakh-Kyrgyz border, the growth in the number of transportation orders to / from Kazakhstan was 70% over the same period in the previous year.”

With the support of the Red Cross, TELS launched a pilot first aid training project for drivers allowing to receive international certificates.

As part of corporate social responsibility program, TELS Group of Companies launched a pilot basic first aid training project for drivers this year. In April, first 18 drivers completed such training and received international certificates.

One of the drivers remarked on the benefit of the training: “When you are driving on the highway, 200 km away from the nearest village, you can count only on yourself and good luck to meet fellow drivers on the route. Besides knowledge, such courses definitely add more confidence”.

The course is prepared in a way to develop driver’s emergency response to most common situations:

• providing first aid to people injured in car accidents;
• injuries caused while securing the cargo and working with the trailer;
• deep cuts.

TELS has a strict driver selection policy allowing to drive company’s cars and include them to a trip – obligatory experience and length of service, thorough medical check-up before the trip. That’s why accidents involving TELS drivers are rare. From time to time, the drivers witness and offer voluntary assistance in accidents and other tragic incidents on the road.

The average age of truck drivers is increasing worldwide. Over 70% of people in this profession are over 45 years old. Due to the increased number of accidents caused by driver’s heart attack, a detailed lecture on prevention, recognition and treatment for heart attack or stroke was presented during the training.

One of TELS drivers shared his story when a medical check-up before the trip saved him from an accident: “I had a strange sensation in my chest during 2 days. As I could walk and felt as usual, I did not pay serious attention to the sensation. I was getting ready for a trip and as always had to undergo a medical check-up during which the doctor suspected that I had already had a heart attack without knowing it. Naturally, I was not allowed for the trip. Further examination revealed the previous heart attack, so I had to undergo the required rehabilitation. But for this check-up, everything could end sadly at any moment”.

Based on the feedback from the two groups of drivers, they consider company’s initiative to teach drivers basic first aid treatment extremely useful, confirming the fact that TELS is aiming at high international standards.