Russian Ministry of Transport tasks association with drafting data exchange requirements for 15 electronic transport document operators

According to logirus.ru, the Digital Transport and Logistics Association, a Russian industry body, is drafting uniform requirements for data exchange between operators of electronic transport documents on behalf of the Russian Ministry of Transport. Electronic transport documents are Russian shipping documents issued and signed in electronic form. A separate part of the requirements covers how operators exchange data with GIS EPD, the Russian state information system for electronic transport documents. Polina Davydova, the association’s director, disclosed this at Kazan Digital Week 2026, a technology conference in Kazan.

The register currently lists 15 operators. The association reviews statistics on each of them every week. Davydova said some operators could be removed from the register. No removal procedure exists yet: the current rules cover only entry to the register.

Who is responsible for what

Davydova spoke in a panel discussion with Ilyas Gilmanov, fleet management director at Delko, a Russian trucking company. Her remarks suggest that oversight of document exchange is split between two agencies. The Federal Tax Service, Russia’s tax authority, is responsible for the roaming rules, which govern the transfer of documents between clients of different operators, and for the exchange of draft documents. The Ministry of Transport is responsible for operators’ connection to GIS EPD, and it has asked the association to draft the requirements for that connection.

Logirus.ru gives no timeline. The association promises to complete the work “as quickly as possible”, but according to the report, Davydova did not name a date. The subject of the requirements is known: exchange between operators and with GIS EPD. The source does not say what specific provisions the document will contain or which metrics will be used to assess operators.

Davydova’s remarks in summary: removal from the register is possible, but operators’ performance will be assessed first. For now only entry rules exist; there is no exit procedure yet.

From logirus.ru

What this means for shippers and carriers

Shippers and carriers manage electronic transport documents through an operator on the register. If an operator is removed, they will probably have to switch to another operator. As there are no exit rules yet, it is unclear whether the switch would be mandatory, how much time companies would get and what would happen to documents already issued. The source does not say.

Companies can check two things now. First, which operator handles their own documents and which operators their main counterparties use. If the operators differ, the exchange relies on roaming, and the Federal Tax Service is responsible for its rules. Second, how quickly and reliably their operator transmits documents to GIS EPD. If the operator provides both the time a document was sent and the time GIS EPD recorded its registration, the gap shows how long transmission took. The gap does not show on whose side a delay occurred, so that question has to be put to the operator. The connection to GIS EPD, together with exchange between operators, will be covered by the requirements the association is drafting. Until these exist, a company’s own experience and the data its operator discloses are a practical way to judge the quality of that connection.

The weekly statistics on all 15 operators show that the association is already collecting performance data on each of them. According to the report, Davydova did not say which metrics would be used to assess operators in the event of removal.

Background

These stories have no direct link to the Ministry of Transport’s assignment, but they also concern electronic documents and state systems. This week, the Russian region of Tatarstan proposed using cameras to check electronic consignment notes for trucks. Around the same time, the Federal Customs Service (FCS), Russia’s customs authority, reported disruptions in data exchange: it confirmed a slowdown in information exchange on 2 November, and earlier reported that data exchange with customs slowed on 31 October. GIS EPD and the FCS systems are not linked. The customs cases show, however, that document processing depends on how reliably the connection to a state system works.