Alliance of railways and industry

Topical problems of cooperation of manufacturers with Russian railways and other railway organizations were discussed during Opened Interbranch Conference, organized by the South Ural Union of Railway Workers, that took place on February 15 at JSC “CHKPZ”.

The event was attended by the representatives of the largest industrial enterprises of our and neighboring regions, as well as the members of the Ministry of Industry and Natural Resources of the Chelyabinsk region, South Ural Railway and Ural territorial administration ROSZHELDOR.

The subjects of the conference were prepared according to survey results of several dozens of large enterprises of South Ural region. In particular, the participants of the meeting discussed the possibility of forming the common trains for transportation of products, and also of creating a rational transportation schedule. According to manufacturers, this will help to reduce the dependence from the South Ural Railway on key questions, optimize the further cooperation with the company, and, finally, strictly fulfill commitments to supplies. As Ivan Dolinin, Logistics director of JSC “CHKPZ”, noted, “this is a really topical issue for the majority, if not all of the enterprises using services of rail transport operators. By the way, the share of railways in the whole volume of shipments and supplies of Chelyabinsk Forge-and-Press Plant is more than 50%. Any problem with delivery of cargo leads to high additional costs for the plant. For example, when the order sent to a client delays on the way because of badly organized work of private transport operator or service provider, the plant has to pay penalty to the customer.

According to Vyacheslav Kuzmichyov, deputy director of energy and resource transport department of the Ministry of Industry and Natural Resources of Chelyabinsk region, in order to efficiently solve such questions, it is necessary to work together, and railway management has already made the first steps towards it. Thus, in the nearest future in all stations of Chelyabinsk division of South Ural Railways there will be posted hotline numbers. By calling these numbers anyone can inform about problems he is facing, and, as V. Kuzmichyov noticed, the response to such claims will be prompt.

Promising initiative was also demonstrated by a private transport operator. The leadership of “The First Freight Company” came up with a proposal to create the list of socially important enterprises, on the ground of which the company will set priorities in work planning. But, it is not clear now, how transparent the claims distribution system will be and which guarantees “The First Freight Company” is ready to provide, however, in case of successful fulfillment, this initiative may be really helpful for the whole region, mainly for its citizens.

Also during the conference there were discussed the problems of professional training and qualifying evaluation of employees with railway specializations, working in the enterprises, and other topical problems.

Finally, an excursion for guests was organized, that acquainted them with the production, as well as the organization of storage of the products. The organizers noted the high quality of work and modern standards in production.

The past meeting was the first in the series of such meetings, which will be held on the regular basis. The following event will take place in March, on the territory of one of the South Ural enterprises.