CARGO BUSINESS 2-10.indd - ZSSK Cargo

which includes the directors of individual organization units, with anonly objective – to direct transportations of consignments in largecontainers to CTT Dobrá.The First TrainThe first container train, which arrived from the Far East (China andKorea) at CTT Dobrá on 21.November 2009, passed the distance ofmore than 12 000 km on its way in just 17 days. This train was carryingcomponents of computer technology in 40-foot HC containers, whichafter transhipment went to Poland.After initial problems with consignments entering the Schengenarea and phytosanitary inspections, transportations of computertechnology components to Poland were also completed bytransportations of magnesite and talc to Austria. Transportations wereblossoming, but there was a sudden turn in their development due totwo unpredictable circumstances.Floods and New Customs SystemAfter severe floods in early June that “destroyed” the border crossingstation Plaveč/Muszyna, the customer refused to use the bordercrossing stations Skalité/Zwardoň or Medzilaborce/Lupkow andbegan to transport consignments from CTT by trucks. For thesetransportations, it is necessary to prepare a customs transitdocument T1. It became problematic after 1.July 2010, when a newcustoms system was launched. The result was that after that date,in fact entire container train was withheld for several days in CTTDobrá. The customer therefore started to use other transport routes– in particular directly through Poland. TC SK is taking all possiblemeasures to get these transportations back to Slovakia, in particularmeasures in the field of customs.Trains from Pescara to TichonovoAnother important step in transportations of intermodal transportunits was the beginning of transportations of spare parts for FIATcars from Italy (first from the terminal of Vilanova and then fromthe terminal Pescara). The first container train arrived at CTT Dobráon 29.May. For this type of transportations (within the intermodaltransport), it is important that it was the first block container train inhistory, which crossed the border with the Ukraine in direction to theRussian Federation in loaded state.Compared with transportations from the Far East, transportationsfor FIAT have been going well. In cooperation with the train operator– company SKD Intrans, it was possible to create a transport systemof two pairs of standard gauge trains a week. A block container train,loaded with empty 40“ HC containers of company TC departs from CTTDobrá to Pescara every Monday and Friday. This block container traincomes back loaded with stuffed 40“ HC containers and is intended tobe transported to station Tichonovo in the Russian Federation.Containers are transhipped by TC SK onto private broad-gaugewagons – the so-called platforms, which are owned by TC Moscow.Depending on the type of used wagons (80”, 60” or 40”), one or twobroad-gauge trains are formed of one train of standard gauge. By earlySeptember, 23 block trains with empty containers from CTT Dobrá toPescara and 22 block trains with stuffed containers from Pescara toCTT Dobrá and then to Tichonovo were transported.the company anticipated significantly higher number of transportedcontainers at the end of this summer. The reason, why some of theseassumptions were not right, are as follows: from the common ones– based on the global economic crisis that could not be foreseen atthe time of signing a lease agreement, through floods and fires...tothe significantly subjective reasons - due to misunderstanding andcreating barriers by the carrier´s employees and also, I do not want tocover up the fact, even by our own TC employees. It was difficult for thestaff of TC SK to get used to increasing requests and demands as wellas significant increase in workload.21 Hours is a SuccessQuality of work carried out by TC SK, in particular the time oftransportation, depends entirely on responsible approach of carriers.It is therefore not acceptable that it would take over 24 hours totransport an intermodal train (I emphasize the word “train”), which isstrongly dependant on keeping delivery times, to Ukrainian borders.Similarly, it is not acceptable for a train from the Far East, which canpass the distance of 12 000 km in 12 to 17 days, to pass the distanceof 9 km from Čierna nad Tisou to CTT Dobrá in more than 24 hours.Whether the delay was caused by the Ukrainian Railways (UŽ) or ZSSKCARGO and ŽSR, the fact is that no requests, pleas or complaintsreally helped. However, one must really hope that the agreementwas reached on 31.August. According to the protocol signed betweenUŽ and ZSSK CARGO, a container train, which arrives at 7.45 am atCTT Dobrá for the purposes of transhipment, after execution of othernecessary activities and transhipment to the broad-gauge wagons,will be dispatched from the station Čierna nad Tisou at 01.00 a.m. andreach the station Chop in the Ukraine next morning at 4.30 a.m. Theperiod of 21 hours (or 17 hours) is now a success.Customs Route Outside Čierna nad TisouIn order to develop and increase transportations, company TC SKwill provide an exchange of supply cables in gantry cranes withinstallations of anti-collision devices in CTT Dobrá in September. Thiswill simplify and accelerate the handling time.Company TC SK has been making an effort to create the so-calledcustoms route, which would run from the border with the Ukraine toCTT Dobrá, outside the station of Čierna nad Tisou. With regard to thisissue, the assistance of ŽSR is really necessary.In conclusion, it must be mentioned that all the activities of companyTransContainer Moscow, TransContainer Ukraine and TransContainer -Slovakia as well as newly established company TransContainer Europeaim to promote intermodal transport by rail, which is eco-friendly,especially in the field of transportations of goods from the Far East tothe EU countries and vice versa, and to significantly strengthen theposition of intermodal transport via CTT Dobrá.Jiří POKORNÝChairman of the Board of Directors and CEO ofTransContainer – Slovakia, a. s.The results are pleasing, but...As we mentioned in the introduction, TransContainer madea resolution to achieve a daring objective – that is to achievea significant growth in the first year of its activities from the scratch,or basically from a minimum of handled containers (before the CTTDobrá was taken over). These efforts and their results are documentedin the attached table.Although comparison with the past is in favour of TransContainer,