South Caucasus Railway's CTS: A Year on the Freight Market

• Wednesday, January 23, 10:29

 It is a year since Center for Transport Services of South Caucasus Railway has been operating on the rail freight market. The official opening of the Centre was held on the October 27th 2011, which operates inside the Center of Road Transport Service, the company's press-service reports.

The opening of the CTS was of particular importance for Armenia because this way a single center for customers has been created. Previously, several structures were responsible for freight customers but it is a year this function is fully laid on the Centre for Transport Services. The Centre also helped to significantly improve the quality of services and to work more closely not only with large but also with the average customers and the private carriers.

The competence of the CTS is the organization of the freight on a "door to door", the reception and processing of applications and other correspondence related to the organization of cargo transportation. Importantly, the structure operates on the principle of "one window" so it simplifies the process of shipping, procedures, registration of various applications and other documentation.

The main objectives to create the CTS, in particular, are rapid response to changes in the situation of the transport market in accordance with customer needs, improving access to railway services.

The Center for Transport Services is convenient so that any customer who has decided to use its services works directly with the manager, who files, organizes and controlles freight, reducing the lead time.

When contacting the CTS a client has a full logistic scheme of cargo transportation including the distance, volume and time of delivery, in combination with additional services on the terminal. And the installation of automated systems not only allows the client to place his order for shipping and shipping documents, to monitor the availability of funds for his personal account but also to perform all the necessary actions online.

The Centre's activities stimulate competition on the market and its services are demanded in the freight transport market. During 2012 CST has signed agreements with 23 customers and 88 additional agreements for each individual shipment.

During this period, 29.1 thousand tons of cargo was transported, including 428 cars and55 containers. CTS income totaled 898,993 drams, which is 111% higher than the planned target for 2012.

Such figures are encouraging and give hope to continue success in 2013 increasing the customer base and freight traffic. 

CJSC "South Caucasian Railway" is a 100% subsidiary of JSC "Russian Railways" and provides concession management of Armenian railroads.  CJSC "Armenian Railways" was referred to the concession management to the company "SCR" according to the Concession Agreement signed on February 13, 2008. The term of the concession management is 30 years with possible extension for another 10 years.