Optimizing the combination of different modes of transport for the movement of goods can bring significant efficiency gains. Supporting improved data sharing between transport modes is crucial to unlock this potential.
UNECE and its subsidiary body – the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) - working with their Ukrainian partners, have proposed a new approach for practical sharing of data among different modes of transport. The idea is to collect a master data set covering an extensive list of transport data and other forms of data and documents used in various modes of transport of goods, and align it to the UN/CEFACT Multimodal Transport Reference Data Model.
Initially, cooperation will be developed with Ukrainian regulatory agencies and the business community, as well as the European Union and several international organizations to align data in the following documents with the data model: electronic road and railway consignment notes, wagon lists, container lists, customs transit procedures, as well as certificates of origin, customs invoices and packing lists. More documents will be added later.
The results of the project will include the possibility for seamless exchange of information among various modes of transport, based on common UN standards. One of the remaining challenges for this move from document-based to data-based exchange of information will be the legal acceptability of the required trade and transport information.
When the project advances, it may be tested along international trade corridors passing through Odessa: for example, the Viking corridor from Odessa to Klaipeda, which crosses Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania, or the Moldova-Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan corridor, or the countries of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization.
The project was proposed at the 9th UNECE seminar on Trade Facilitation and Single Window, held in Odessa on 28 May 2019.