Displaying items by tag: OUT OF GAUGE

In Russia after many decades has ended the state monopoly in the railway sector: the market has been opened to private operators.

Today, it is divided among more than 2000 companies that operate in a market which constitutes 85% of trade flows across the country. 

For IFA customer satisfaction is essential, even when the demands made are far from trivial: send six crates of about 45 tons each 17mt in length, 2.39mt in width and 3.04mt in height to be delivered at the same time as 10 X 40-ft containers loaded with spare parts all of which needed to travel and arrive in Murmansk, more than 4,500 km from Italy.

Delivery time to destination was set by the customer at 20/25 days.
The solution chosen for economy and reliability, regardless of the time of year, was the railway.

After informing the representatives of the Italian and foreign railways of the sizes of the load a train, specifically dedicated for this transport, was made available.
At the Ukrainian border (where the goods were transshipped from European wagons to Russian wagons) a train carriage was added to carry the escort personnel up to the final destination.

IFA focused on the need to speed up transport and transit, whilst ensuring a problem free journey effecting the delivery of the goods documentation directly to the receiver.

An oversized 44-tonne reactor containing class A 2.2 IMO 1066 nitrogen, destination Nizhnekamsk - Tatarstan.

All shipments are unique and special but when you add in factors such as large sizes and shape plus dangerous goods they can be really problematic.
On average IFA manages 4-5 requests for exceptional transport per month.

The case presented describes the delivery of a very wide and very heavy reactor weighing 44 tonnes destined for Nizhnekamsk - Tatarsta.

Apart from the very large size the other critical consideration was the presence of nitrogen (IMO class 2.2 UN 1066) inside the reactor circuit as protection against possible oxidation during navigation.
Shipment was carried out using combined transport:

• Exceptional road transport from factory to port of export
• RO RO ship
• Exceptional transport from arrival port to final destination with a transit time of 20 days at sea and a road journey of approximately 2000 km.

In order to organize the transportation it was necessary to coordinate a number of personnel:

• The exporter with the transport vehicle regarding readiness of the goods and their on-road Authority permits
• The shipping company and the terminal which undertook loading onto the vessel for acceptance of the reactor containing dangerous goods and its handling during loading and shipment
• Our correspondent at destination ready to receive the goods in St. Petersburg and to arrange onward transport taking into consideration restrictions and limitations of exceptional transport in Russia during the winter

In this way IFA was able to guarantee delivery taking into account the intrinsic criticality of this type of transport.

Organizing shipments of industrial plants and machinery over long distances must always be weighed against the costs of transport methods and the degree of security that is necessary to ensure delivery of the goods without any damage and in the timescales required.
Five crates of machinery, some exceptionally large, to be sent a distance of 10,000 km falls into this type of transport complexity.

In these cases the railway represents a valid solution.
The destination of Krasnojarsk can be reached from Italy by conventional truck in about 15 days (longer during the winter). By rail it takes 30 days, however this time is ensured throughout the whole year allowing you to manage, even during the most climatically difficult conditions, shipments of oversized goods where other modes of transport could have considerable difficulties.

Critical success factors that were considered and which allowed delivery to destination without any problems were:

• Selection of the most suitable type of wagon for the type of load
• Thorough study of weight distribution inside the wagon
• The professionalism of everyone involved, including those staff who assumed responsibility for securing the goods according to the specifications required by the railways of the various countries of transit.