Business will incur millions in costs due to the updated rules for registering consignment notes

28/ 09/ 2021

From October 1, 2021, Ukraine will introduce changes in the procedure of registration of consignment notes. According to new rules, a consignor will be obliged to specify the vehicle and its parameters (length, width, height, total weight, including cargo, and gross weight) at the registration. This novelty raises many questions for clarifications are needed, as well as imposes a significant financial burden on the company. Therefore, the European Business Association asked the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee to review this requirement and abolish the mandatory indication of these vehicle parameters. According to the EBA experts, the obligation to issue consignment notes is imposed on shippers, but since the latter use the transport services of other companies, they generally do not have information on the parameters of the shippers vehicle. Therefore, they cannot verify such data and guarantee its correctness when entering it in the consignment note. In this regard, the EBA member companies have questions about the permissibility of errors in entering the vehicle parameters. In practice, companies do not have databases containing such information about the vehicle, so the data will likely be entered manually. It would mean significant additional costs of labor and financial resources to perform this work. According to EBA experts, additional financial costs for one company can reach 1-1.5 million hryvnias per year. And international companies that work with shippers under a special standardized global program (Global Transportation Management Solutions - gTMS), which does not provide for the introduction of such information in consignment notes, will have to provide additional time and financial costs to adapt the program to the new requirements. The EBA hopes for the settlement of this issue to avoid undue pressure on the business. Also, companies would like to draw attention to the introduction of the register of consignment notes. The business community needs to know at what stage is the process of approval of the procedure for maintaining and providing information from the register of consignment notes at the request of Law №1534-IX by the Government. We hope that due attention would be paid to issues that are essential for the business community! Be the first to learn about the latest EBA news with our Telegram-channel – EBAUkraine.

According to the EBA experts, the obligation to issue consignment notes is imposed on shippers, but since the latter use the transport services of other companies, they generally do not have information on the parameters of the shipper’s vehicle. Therefore, they cannot verify such data and guarantee its correctness when entering it in the consignment note. In this regard, the EBA member companies have questions about the permissibility of errors in entering the vehicle parameters.

In practice, companies do not have databases containing such information about the vehicle, so the data will likely be entered manually. It would mean significant additional costs of labor and financial resources to perform this work. According to EBA experts, additional financial costs for one company can reach 1-1.5 million hryvnias per year. And international companies that work with shippers under a special standardized global program (Global Transportation Management Solutions – gTMS), which does not provide for the introduction of such information in consignment notes, will have to provide additional time and financial costs to adapt the program to the new requirements.

The EBA hopes for the settlement of this issue to avoid undue pressure on the business. Also, companies would like to draw attention to the introduction of the register of consignment notes. The business community needs to know at what stage is the process of approval of the procedure for maintaining and providing information from the register of consignment notes at the request of Law №1534-IX by the Government. We hope that due attention would be paid to issues that are essential for the business community!

Be the first to learn about the latest EBA news with our Telegram-channel – EBAUkraine.