Creation and development of the institutional framework for securing multimodal transportation in Ukraine

Abstract

The article examines the peculiarities of the creation and development of the institutional framework for securing multimodal transportation in Ukraine. The article reviews the main regulatory acts of Ukraine in the field of cargo transportation in the context of their regulation of procedural issues related to multimodal transportation (provisions of regulatory acts until 2021). Bilateral agreements on international combined transportation between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the governments of individual states are described. The existing bilateral documents on the compatibility of different types of railways and other technical standards signed between Ukraine and the European Union are analyzed (Ukraine-EU Action Plan and the EU-Ukraine Association Agenda to prepare and facilitate the implementation of the Association Agreement (Chapter 7. Other forms of cooperation. Transport; effective from November 23, 2009)). The article analyzes the provisions of the 2020 Transport Strategy of Ukraine and the Draft Law of Ukraine “On Combined Transportation” in the context of their regulation of the priorities for the development of various modes of transport in the country and the development of transport and logistics technologies and multimodal transportation facilities. The following problems in multimodal transportation in the period up to 2021 are identified (i.e., in the absence of a separate special institutional framework for multimodal transportation in Ukraine): lack of clear regulation and terminological confusion in the categories of “multimodal transportation”, “combined (mixed) transportation”, and “intermodal transportation” as in fact, these concepts were equated; imperfect legal regulation of the organization of container transportation and transportation of removable bodies; imperfect legal regulation of contractual relations between the shippers (or their representatives) and carriers (the carrier changed at each stage of cargo transportation); ambiguity and dissonance of certain provisions of various legal acts regulating the property liability of interacting enterprises at transport hubs, issues of liability of the parties in combined transportation, compensation for damage in case of non-safety of cargo and/or rolling stock as a result of force majeure, mutual settlements, transport documents, customs requirements, rights and obligations of mixed transportation operators, etc. The article analyzes the current 2030 National Transport Strategy of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine “On Multimodal Transportation”, and the Recovery Plan of Ukraine in the context of their regulation of procedural issues of multimodal transportation, as well as the identification of measures to promote the development of domestic multimodal transshipment terminals.