Kazakhstan Railways digitises freight service
Kazakhstan Railways has tested the electronic consignment note in freight transportation from China. The fully-fledged service will be available after concluding the respective interstate agreement between China and Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan Railways is also introducing the digital services for freight transportation to other countries and on the domestic market.
While the electronic consignment note in rail freight operations with China is just at a test phase, it is used sufficiently for the export-import operations between Russian Railways and Kazakhstan Railways (Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, or KTZ). Last year, over 2,200 electronic consignment notes were issued for rail freight transportation from Kazakhstan to Russia and over 5,700 electronic documents in the opposite direction. The use of electronic freight documents allowed KTZ to reduce the forwarding process in export shipments from 2 days to 1 hour.
Domestic developments
It is worth to note that most freight operations in Kazakhstan are handled via the electronic system. Around 37 thousand customers use it regularly. Only in January – September, more than 200 thousand applications were done for the transportation of goods by rail.
At the same time, KTZ is developing its own train tracing system. It will provide the company’s customers with an opportunity to monitor and trace their freight. Moreover, Kazakhstan Railways wants to develop digital solutions to monitor its rail infrastructure of over 21 thousand kilometres and its wagon fleet of 130 thousand units.
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