Discount Casting

According to a company announcement, “for the first time in Russia, contracts for transportation of oil and oil products by railway are based on the results of tenders executed by offering a discount factor to the standard price of transportation”. “Writing a price formula and a fixed discount factor into the contract will help to avoid complications in the event of a change in shipment route – if this happens, the parameters of the new route will be input into the formula and the cost will be calculated automatically”, Alexander Kharchenko, Director of TNK-BP’s Logistics Department, told Gudok.
According to another innovation, each loading point will be served by just one private freight forwarder, rather than several, as has been the case before. “This will mean we don’t lose our operational flexibility, which often happens when several companies operate in a single loading point”, says a TNK-BP representative.
According to Jonathan Kollek, TNK-BP’s Vice President for Sales, Trade and Logistics, who is quoted in an announcement by the holding company, this will allow the company’s contractors to plan loading operations in advance, while also improving the quality of service and promoting competition in the freight shipment sector.
Whereas TNK-BP used to run tenders once per quarter, it will now sign seasonal contracts, for the winter season and the summer season. Sergey Polikarpov, Deputy General Director of OJSC Vostokneftetrans, believes that this move towards longer-term cooperation will give the operators more incentive to work with TNK-BP. Come what may, however, TNK-BP will continue to partner with First Freight Company, which in addition to other freight, handles the oil company’s government contract deliveries.