Conscientious auto carriers stand for the safety of roads and for equal conditions in the freight market

 On 15^th of August was held a meeting of the Working Group on Transport Policy Development at the site of NCE RK Atameken. The meeting was attended by Deputy Chairman of the Board of NCE RK Atameken Eldos Ramazanov, Deputy Minister for Investment and Development of RK Roman Sklyar, representatives of industry associations and unions, business communities and regional chambers of entrepreneurs.

Deputy Chairman of the Board of NCE RK "Atameken" Eldos Ramazanov, opening the meeting, informed about the importance of consideration the safety of roads for both the state and entrepreneurs.

"I would like to add that this issue has been repeatedly raised on the site of NCE since 2014, at the meeting of the Committee for Logistics and Transportation of the Presidium of NCE RK "Atameken", working groups under the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and then in the Ministry for Investment and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan. A survey was conducted in the regions of Kazakhstan. It is necessary to come to a common opinion and make a decision", - Eldos Ramazanov said.

The participants shared their proposals on the issues of development and repair of highways of the republican and local significance and plans for 2017, measures to preserve the highways of Kazakhstan, the impact of exceeding axle loads on the roads, the need for introducing legislation that provides for the issuance of a special permit for travel of large and heavy cargoes only for the carriage of "indivisible" goods. Amangeldy Bekov, Deputy Chairman of the Road Committee of MID RK, informed about the current state and prospects of the development of Kazakhstani roads, where in 2016-2017, 500 billion tenge were allocated for reconstruction.

"The length of the network of public roads of Kazakhstan is 96 thousand km, of which about 24 thousand km are highways of national importance. Basically, our republican network consists of roads of the third category - it is 14.7 thousand km, over 2 thousand km - of the first category and over 5 thousand km of the second category. Currently, 44% of roads are in good condition, 41% are in satisfactory condition and 15% are in unsatisfactory condition", - Amangeldy Bekov said.

Sabit Amanbaev, the General Director of the Union of Truckers of Kazakhstan (KAO), stressed that in 2014, according to the All-World Bank estimates, the book value of Kazakhstan's roads was estimated at 105 billion USD. In 2014, a working group was established, which revealed that 78% of the roads require repair.

The initiative on the need to preserve the roads of Kazakhstan, by restricting the transport of goods exceeding the axle loads, was proposed by the following industry associations: the Transport Union of Kazakhstan "Kazlogistics", the Union of International Road Carriers of Kazakhstan (KazATO), the Union of Truckers of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KAO), the National Company "KazAvtoZhol" and many subjects of auto transportation business.

Theodore Kaplan, Secretary General of the Union of International Road Carriers of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KazATO), expressed concern that in 99% of cases roads are being destroyed because of the issuance of a special permit for heavy vehicles, since unscrupulous carriers, paying rates for one tenth of the way, in fact, travel all the way.

"There is no control, corruption develops, generating unfair competition, which leads to the destruction of the road. We are like a bottomless barrel, there is no money in the budget, we find money and build roads, and these trucks with asphalt grind the asphalt the next day. And everyone knows it", - he said.

Expressing the opinion of representatives of automobile enterprises of Kazakhstan Teodor Kaplan added that the introduction of the norm "indivisible cargo" will not exert financial burden on entrepreneurs who own dump trucks, as in the design estimates for the construction of facilities the costs for transportation of construction materials are indicated according to the permitted axle loads. The abolition of the norm of "indivisible cargo" in 2013 contributed to the emergence of unscrupulous carriers who, in pursuit of economic benefits and superprofits, are destroying public roads.

In turn, this position was supported by Serik Aliguzhinov, Chairman of the Board of the Union of Truckers of Kazakhstan (KAO), who noted that it is important to provide the country's population with quality roads and to limit the travel of heavy vehicles, exceeding the axle load.

The President of the Kazakhstani Road Research Institute Talgat Taltayev presented a study of the critical impact of exceeding axle loads on the state of highways. The passage of one truck exceeding the permissible (10 tons) by an axial load of 3 tons is equal to the destructive effect of the passage of 23 trucks. He also noted that in the countries of the European Union and the United States they take care of their roads, restricting the travel of heavy vehicles with exceeding axle loads, while over-travel is allowed only for indivisible goods.

"During the first 7 months of this year, the transport control body detected 26 254 cases of traffic violations of heavyweights and large-scale transport vehicles, 10,668 of them for exceeding weight parameters, 8,979 units for exceeding the overall parameters and 6,607 units with excesses of both indicators", - Talgat Ospanov, the head of the Transport Control Department of the Transport Committee of MID RK informed.

Deputy Director General of the Union of Transport Workers of Kazakhstan "Kazlogisticks" Kanat Mukushev supported that the permissible maximum load adopted in Kazakhstan should not exceed 10 tonnes for a single axis. This corresponds to the adopted norms in the countries of the EAEU and in the USA. Noting that the head of state in his message to the people of Kazakhstan "Nurly Zhol - the way to the future "called the roads - the lines of life for Kazakhstan, the wealth of our future generations”.

"The business community in the person of conscientious entrepreneurs - carriers and consignors should unite in the speedy resolution of this issue", - Kanat Mukushev emphasized.

It was repeatedly stressed at the meeting that the issuance of a special permit for the transportation of an undivided cargo is already in force in the partner countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. For example, in Russia such changes to the Federal Law of the Russian Federation were adopted in July 2015, in Kyrgyzstan - on 3^rd of February 2017.

The EU Directive recommended the countries of the Union to transport vehicles and combined transport vehicles intended for the transport of indivisible goods, only on the basis of special permits issued in a non-discriminatory manner by competent state bodies. For example, in Germany, under conditions of passage of heavy and large vehicles, a special permit for transportation of bulky goods can be obtained from transport authorities at border crossings in cases where the cargo can’t be divided for technical reasons.

Summarizing the results of the meeting, the participants of the working group came to a common opinion on the need to take measures for the preservation of roads, compliance with the permissible weight parameters of vehicles, fixed by MID RK, the introduction of the norms for issuing special permits for the transport of heavy and bulky goods only for the carriage of "indivisible" cargo within the frames of the development of the corresponding legislation”, - Roman Sklyar supported this position.