- Статьи
- Economy
- Lucky or unlucky: car business asks authorities to intervene in transportation pricing
Lucky or unlucky: car business asks authorities to intervene in transportation pricing
The car business has offered the authorities a new way to combat the grey market of cargo transportation. Companies are being asked to create a transparent pricing system. In particular, to introduce an hourly payment for the delivery of goods, including it in electronic document management and the state budget. Currently, only tonnage and mileage are paid, which is why trucks are overloaded, labor conditions are disrupted, emergencies occur, and the market is working "in earnest." Whether the new regime will help whitewash the industry is in the Izvestia article.
What way do carriers offer to combat the gray market?
Small and medium-sized carriers often operate according to "gray" schemes, avoiding taxes. According to the Avtogruzex Association, about 60% of transportation orders are placed in the shade. The transport workers asked the authorities to radically change the situation. The Gruzavtotrans Association proposed to the Ministry of Transport to include in electronic document management (EDI) and GosLog a single algorithm for calculating orders with an hourly rate, as in a taxi.
— Now mainline trucks and bulk carriers often drive overloaded, smashing roads, drivers do not sleep for days, allow risky overtaking, and all because they are provoked by customers and the established flight payment system, — Vladimir Matyagin, president of the Gruzavtotrans Association, told Izvestia.
Drivers get paid for tons and kilometers of mileage, which is the root of the industry's key problems. In the struggle for orders, small and medium-sized carriers overload cars, squeeze drivers' rest time, and force them to drive trucks long and fast in order to earn money. Naturally, this provokes accidents and violations of the law, the expert noted.
Carriers often work "in earnest" to keep tariffs at a minimum level, Mikhail Koptev, commercial director of Skif-Cargo, told Izvestia. At the same time, they do not pay taxes, and drivers do not have any social guarantees.
— Without the intervention of the regulator and without price control in logistics, it is impossible to defeat the "gray" schemes, — says Vladimir Matyagin.
In its letter to the head of the Ministry of Transport, Andrey Nikitin, the association asked for a new algorithm for calculating payment for orders to be introduced into the GosLog digital transport and logistics platform during the transition to electronic document management (EDI), which is scheduled for September 2026. It should include the standard time allotted for the delivery of a certain tonnage of cargo to the specified distance, and the cost calculation should be carried out automatically in the system, which will eliminate "gray" dumping. The proposed standard includes the speed of movement, the carrying capacity of vehicles, time for loading and unloading, leasing costs, taxes, drivers' salaries, rest hours, and more.
Simply put, the new formula should take into account the entire operating time of the carrier and cover its white costs, including downtime at checkpoints and unloading, Vladimir Matyagin noted. The pricing of taxi aggregators works approximately the same way.
Order fulfillment control can be provided by online tachographs and through the ERA-GLONASS system, electronic passes and QR codes at loading/unloading points, and the guaranteed minimum hourly rate set by the regulator should protect the market from "gray" dumping, the expert believes.
According to Gruzavtotrans, the new rules will reduce accidents by 40-50% and increase tax revenues by 25-30%.
Why don't carriers leave the gray area
To make this initiative work, it is not enough to simply change the tariff, Mikhail Koptev believes. It is necessary to fully implement the GosLog system, which will combine data on flights, contracts, fares and document flow. In addition, it is necessary to automatically exchange data through the EDI so that each trip and payment are visible in the system, the expert added.
However, the transition to EDI and new pricing algorithms will require investments from carriers, which not everyone is ready for. According to Skif-Cargo, about 40% of them are not ready to finance the whitewashing and risk being out of the market after the introduction of mandatory EDI.
— The transition to electronic document management for carriers can cost from 300 thousand rubles. Expenses include the acquisition of an operator's software license, the implementation of an accounting system (ERP or cloud service), the issuance of qualified electronic signatures (CAP) and the configuration of their own business processes in the EDI operator's system," Avtogruzex President, co-owner of the PEC Vadim Filatov told Izvestia. — Subsequent expenses amount from 20 thousand rubles per year for software maintenance.
A significant part of the costs is associated with the integration of internal business processes and external software, the market participant notes.
For a small company (10-50 cars), the actual starting cost of implementing EDI can range from 100 to 500 thousand rubles. For medium and large companies — millions of rubles, depending on the depth of integration and customization, said Mikhail Koptev.
According to the Digital Transport and Logistics Association, the implemented digital system affects all business chains, and the more investments, the more investments are required from the company. Small sole proprietors do not have enough funds, which is why they delay the transition.
— According to our observations, up to 70% of all carriers are small businesses with a fleet of up to five cars, — Stepan Terekhin, Director of development of the first operator of the state information system of electronic transportation documents GIS EPD "Astral—Soft" told Izvestia. — It is difficult for them to adapt their business processes to digital.
According to him, if you invest 200-500 thousand rubles now, this will only allow the carrier to save customers and contracts. It takes millions for a company to gain business advantages. However, small carriers do not go for it and implement mostly simple solutions, the expert notes.
Withdrawal from the trucking market creates risks of tariff increases in the fall of 2026. To improve the situation, the Avtogruzex association asked the Ministry of Transport to create a single interactive portal for the introduction of electronic documents, which would explain how to work with digital invoices and order processing scenarios.
Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Transport.
Formation of ecosystems of major players
The freight transportation market in Russia is characterized by significant heterogeneity in approaches to the formation of the cost of services. Currently, there are no uniform standards: each company has its own tariff schedule, depending on the conditions of transportation, Artem Vaskanyan, Deputy General Director for Logistics at 3PL operator NC Logistic, told Izvestia. The cost of delivery within the country varies even on neighboring sections of the route. For example, there is one rate per kilometer to Ufa, and the price per kilometer from Ufa to Chelyabinsk is more expensive, he added.
In the issue of hourly pay, it is necessary to work out all the details on real cases from loading time to downtime on the route, weigh the results "before" and "after" and understand how beneficial it will be to transportation participants, the market participant believes.
Hourly pay has advantages: It is fair to the driver (he is paid for downtime and waiting) and is convenient for complex urban deliveries with multiple unloading points, Eduard Mironov, Director of Procurement of transport services at FM Logistic in Russia, told Izvestia. It reduces the incentive to overload, because the carrier does not care whether it carries 10 tons or 20 tons, since the payment is made in hours. However, the system will not protect against a dishonest customer who will offer an hourly rate "taking into account the planned overload."
A certain compromise here is provided by a fixed rate, where the customer receives price predictability, and the carrier undertakes obligations for the speed of delivery.
Next year, the industry may face drastic changes: digitalization has already marked a structural bias towards large companies, Artyom Vaskanyan believes.
When switching to EDI, carriers will begin to merge with large logistics structures or, to save money, they will use the services of digital providers who will take over the workflow, which will lead to the formation of ecosystems of large players and reduce the independence of small ones, the expert concluded.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
