Rules for ordering railway cargo shipping by wagons

How to use the Railway Shipping section to find railway freight forwarders for cargo delivery

Every cargo owner has a personal account where the shipper, in the category «Railway Shipping» in the section «Add Cargo», manages their requests, places new ones, showing everyone that you have cargo and need freight wagons to be delivered. Add several requests with different cargo. Update them and raise them in the list of other requests in the section «My Cargo» there are tools for this to show all your cargo to all railway carriers. In the section «Railway Transport - All Requests» you can find a carrier independently.

If you perform these actions regularly, carriers and freight forwarders will always contact the railway shipping shipper whose request is new, first, and at the top of the list of other requests. On the site you can order railway wagon shipping from most carriers by viewing requests and a company catalog.

As of 01.11.2026 requests from carriers providing wagons for railway shipping 2,940 offers.

The carrier - railway shipping freight forwarder provides the following services

On behalf of the shipper, develops an optimal transport scheme for railway cargo shipping and notifies the client that the cargo will follow a specific route. The carrier must coordinate with the railways - participants in the shipping process - the technology for shipping cargo in the required wagons. The determination of the required wagon type happens with the shipper. The freight forwarder provides the railway shipping client with rates in advance for shipping cargo along the declared route.

The freight forwarder's responsibilities include: making payments to railways and other participants in the shipping, ensuring payment of railway tariffs and additional fees, as well as issuing authorization telegrams. The railway shipping organizer, upon an additional request, if necessary, arranges financial guarantees for transit of excisable cargo through the territory of transit countries.

The freight forwarder on a separate instruction from the «Client» carries out search and tracking of cargo, notifies the cargo owner about it, ensures passage of cargo received at railway junction points and payment for the territory through which the shipper carries out shipping. If wagon redirection is necessary, the freight forwarder assumes this responsibility. If necessary, the railway freight forwarder makes payment of station and other additional fees at destination stations. The railway shipping carrier's responsibilities include making payments to individual stations, ports and wharves for wagon repositioning, cargo transfer and reloading carried out during cargo shipment in wagons.

The wagon shipping organizer must ensure provision of customs services to the Client in full, within a reasonable timeframe, as quickly as possible and in compliance with the laws of transit countries and contribute to rapid passage of control and customs clearance of the Client's goods at the border crossing.

The railway shipping carrier provides financial guarantees and ensures timely delivery of wagons and goods contained in them for which financial guarantees are provided to the customs authority of destination, without violation of their integrity, change of nominal values and volumes. Informs the «Client» about cargo accepted for shipping.

The railway freight forwarder in a given direction has the right to change the level of tariff rates and charges for transport and forwarding services of the «Client's» cargo in case of change in the level of tariff rates by railways - participants in the shipping process. For additional services in organizing railway wagon shipping, the client issues a power of attorney to the freight forwarder.

What should a cargo owner inform the freight forwarder about to organize railway cargo shipping

The railway shipping client must provide the carrier with a package of necessary documents for processing railway cargo; all documents must be provided by the cargo owner in originals. Provide the «Carrier» with requests to agree on the cost and shipping conditions, which indicate the following exact information:

• exact cargo name (cargo code TNVED, HNG, cargo code ETSNG), total volume for the shipping period;
• dispatch station, shipper, destination station, consignee;
• route of expedition, railway name;
• wagon type, its ownership (common railway fleet, own or rented);
• in case of perishable, oversized and dangerous cargo shipping, specify additional shipping conditions.
• In case of cargo shipping in containers, determine the quantity, type and size of containers.

When shipping cargo by railway, the billing mass for wagon-load shipment is the actual mass of the shipment rounded to full tons, but not less than the mass of the weight category. When rounding 500 kg or more, it is rounded to a full ton, and less than 500 kg is discarded.

What additional requirements may be in a railway cargo shipping contract when shipping in a direction

The client sends the declared wagons with cargo within the timeframes and volumes agreed with the «Carrier». Timely informs the «Carrier» of shipping information (shipment date, railway waybill numbers, wagon numbers, cargo weight in each wagon and other data) for unimpeded passage of wagons through border crossings. Presents cargo for railway shipping in serviceable packaging that protects the cargo from damage and harm in transit and during reloading into or out of a wagon.

To avoid delay of wagons at border stations, attach to shipping documents the required number of copies of the road log as well as all additional documents necessary for customs, sanitary, quarantine and other formalities. Pay the amounts of shipping charges and additional fees, as well as amounts for wagon downtime at railway stations arising from incorrect documentation of shipping documents by the shipper.

When shipping oversized, long and heavy cargo, additionally specify in the request the data provided for by international shipping rules: diagrams, sketches of dimensions, etc. Ensure shipping processing according to SMGS and CIM documents in strict accordance with the «Carrier's» instructions. Immediately inform the «Carrier» of all circumstances preventing shipment and movement of cargo. Within 24 hours after shipping cargo, inform the «Carrier» of the completed shipment.

The category «Railway Shipping» is a quick way to search for and order railway shipping

How to ship cargo by railway

Cargo shipping by rail — one of the most important directions of transport logistics. Large manufacturing enterprises, exporters, importers, trading and supply organizations, as well as private individuals can use such shipping. Let's figure out how to use the railway shipping service for your cargo. 

Where cargo can be sent by rail

When planning railway shipping, you need to understand that trains run only along laid railway lines and cargo can be delivered by rail only to the unloading station. If the final destination point of the cargo route does not coincide with a railway station, you need to immediately plan the method of further motor shipping of the cargo. You should also plan motor delivery of cargo from its starting point to the loading station for loading onto railway transport in a wagon.

Between any stations of different railways connected into a single network, cargo shipping by railway is fundamentally possible. In some cases, delivery of cargo in railway wagons and by sea is also possible. For this, special ships have been designed on which railway transport is driven into the loading port, and at the unloading port it is unloaded and then follows by rail.

What cargo can be delivered by railway

There are no special restrictions on cargo delivered by rail. That is, any cargo that fits within the dimensions of railway rolling stock can be delivered by rail. Sometimes it is possible to organize delivery of containers and oversized cargo by railway.

It should be noted that different cargo types have different storage and shipping conditions, as well as different optimal methods of loading and unloading. Therefore, railways have many different types of rolling stock designed for shipping specific cargo. In particular:

• Bulk cargo is transported in special hoppers.
• Liquid cargo in tanks.
• Cargo requiring temperature control in transit is transported in refrigerated wagons. 
• Cargo shipping in containers of different sizes.

There are significantly more types of rolling stock, and for each cargo the railway will find the most suitable type of wagon, platform or tank.

What you need to know to ship cargo by rail

The transport logistics system, including railway logistics, is currently computerized. Computers find it most convenient to work with numbers, and therefore, when submitting a request for railway cargo shipping, the shipper must specify the following codes:

• Station code. This is a sequence of 5 Arabic numerals that precisely identifies the cargo arrival station. In some locations there are several railway stations, so one settlement name is not enough. To deliver rolling stock to the place needed by the shipper, you must also provide the loading station code.
• TNVED code — commodity nomenclature of foreign economic activity. This code is necessary for customs clearance of exported and imported cargo. It is by this code that the size of customs payments is determined.
• ETSNG code — unified tariff and statistical nomenclature of cargo. By this code, the railway determines the cost of shipping.
• HNG code — harmonized nomenclature of cargo. This code is used when calculating tariffs for shipping by railways of CIS countries.

Only knowing these codes will you be able to ship cargo by rail. Errors in codes are not allowed, as payments depend on them and the shipper may be accused of attempting to underpay, and in case of error in the TNVED code and an attempt at smuggling. All codes can be found in special tables, in particular on the Internet.

Saving and optimizing railway shipping through wagon rental.

It should be noted that the tariff calculated by these codes for a single shipment is relatively high. If your company regularly makes shipments of cargo or goods of a certain type, there is an opportunity to save money by renting a wagon for a certain period. In this case, each single shipment will cost less.

There is a possibility of renting wagons according to your cargo needs. That is, you can order and receive for use from one or two wagons to 10 or 100 wagons you need.

How to find a railway carrier

If you want to ship cargo by railway, add cargo by filling in a request Add Cargo, specialists from logistics companies will contact you soon. The second option for finding railway transport is to view offers Railway Transport - All Requests and contact railway shipping companies, the authors of the announcements.