The war unleashed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine has forever changed the lives of all Ukrainians, and also affected absolutely all areas of activity, industries, including business in the field of domestic and international cargo transportation. Well-established logistics chains over many years have stopped working, there is a lack of air traffic, blockades of seaports, destroyed oil refineries, constant shelling and missile attacks on infrastructure, including large warehouse complexes and customs terminals. All this forced freight transport companies to almost completely rebuild their activities in just a matter of days. To this should be added the withdrawal of many large foreign companies from the logistics services market. All this, of course, affected the cost of freight transportation in Ukraine, the timing and quality of the services provided.
What difficulties have Ukrainian cargo carriers encountered?
Wartime logistics are critical. At the same time, the Ukrainian logistics industry, with the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russian troops, faced a number of serious problems.
- The need to refocus on the delivery of humanitarian and essential goods.
- Most commercial enterprises were temporarily closed or suspended their operations.
- Sharp rise in fuel prices.
- Fuel limits.
- The need to change established routes and replace them with new, safer ones.
- Many large logistics terminals had to be urgently evacuated to other regions.
- Lack of warehouse space.
- Lack of qualified drivers, logisticians and managers.
In addition, the principle of constructing the cargo delivery chain has also changed, for example, a truck with the necessary products is sent to the eastern regions and returned empty, since most commercial enterprises, in the first months of Russian aggression, moved their production workshops to the western regions of the country. All this ultimately affected the rise in prices for cargo transportation in Ukraine.
Prospects for further development
In such difficult conditions, mainly large representatives of the Ukrainian logistics business, in particular the Grand Logistics Company, were able to withstand and continue their activities. This is explained by a strong material and technical base, the presence of a fleet of vehicles, including special-purpose equipment, extensive experience in this field and a staff of highly qualified specialists.
Now freight transport enterprises are faced with the task of further modernizing and automating logistics processes, actively introducing digital technologies, as well as establishing new routes for the delivery of goods within the country. This will optimize most work processes, minimize the human factor, improve the quality of services provided, reduce the likelihood of long downtime and inefficient use of equipment, and ensure the ability to track cargo along the entire route and at any time. According to experts, all this will in the future make it possible to slightly reduce the price of freight transportation in Ukraine. But this will not happen so quickly, since in the coming months prices, at best, will remain at the same level or may even increase slightly. Today, very often products are delivered along bypass roads, which increases the total mileage and takes more time, since maximum safety for the life and health of all participants in the logistics process is always a priority. You can find out the current price for delivery of a specific cargo from one locality in Ukraine to another from the managers of the GLC company.
