International cargo transportation under quarantine

Many European countries, due to the coronavirus pandemic, introduced strict quarantine and completely closed their borders, restricting the transportation of even transit goods through their country. Over time, almost all states removed such restrictions, but now a new wave is again observed, in connection with which the situation in the international cargo transportation remains unstable.

How has the pandemic affected the international freight market?

Reducing the number of orders for delivery of goods from Europe to Ukraine and vice versa - this is only part of the problem. At the same time, for drivers, the risks of contracting COVID-19 have increased, as well as being placed under observation. This made it much more difficult to find a driver. First of all, this affected small carriers and small logistics companies.

Due to the surge in cases in Ukraine, as well as in the USA, Brazil, India and most European countries, a decrease in the total volume of international cargo transportation is predicted, somewhere in the range of 30-40%. According to the statistics provided by the specialists of the cargo transportation company Grand Logistics Company, and compiled on the basis of an analysis of activities during the period of previous strict quarantine restrictions, depending on the type of cargo transportation, this indicator may vary slightly. In particular, the industry turned out to be the most sensitive to changes. air transportation, the demand for which has fallen significantly. In second place - delivery of goods by road. There were serious problems with transportation of goods by sea, - primarily from China. It is explained by the fact that large batches of products were blocked in the country. Another problem faced by the logistics industry is the shortage of returnable packaging (return containers).

The least quarantine restrictions affected rail freight, where there was a temporary decrease in the volume of goods transported, by about 4%. At the same time, conditions for freight trains improved, as passenger traffic was significantly reduced. Among the positive aspects, it should be noted the desire of logistics companies to minimize costs by optimizing processes, as well as more active use of contactless methods of processing accompanying and customs documentation in electronic form.

 

To date, many logistics providers, in order to stay in the trend, change the worked out schemes and use in their work alternative algorithms for interacting with the client, which often turn out to be more costly. For example, in recent years, more and more popular are combined (multimodal) delivery options various cargoes. A characteristic feature of the latter is the use of 2 or more modes of transport for the delivery of products, under a single contract. Responsibility for the fulfillment of the conditions lies with the cargo transportation company with which the relevant document is concluded. For example, for air transportation, this option is the delivery of goods through major European hubs, such as Frankfurt am Main, Charles de Gaulle, Schiphol, Heathrow, Barajas and others. It is possible that new ways of cargo transportation may appear in the near future.

Summing up, it is important to note that quarantine has clearly demonstrated that for the successful development of entrepreneurial activities in the field of logistics, an important role is played by trust and partnerships that allow cooperation, as well as flexibility in finding new approaches to solving problems and the ability to quickly adapt to the complex realities of quarantine restrictions. 2020