Russia shifts to electronic document management in transport sector

President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has signed a new law aimed at a major transformation of the freight and logistics sector. According to the Ministry of Transport, the law introduces two key innovations for the digitalization of the industry: the creation of a Freight Forwarders Register and the mandatory transition to electronic document management. Starting March 1, 2026, the Freight Forwarders Register will be launched on the "GosLog" platform. All legal entities and individual entrepreneurs engaged in freight forwarding will be required to register. They will have 60 days to submit an application; failure to comply will automatically result in the loss of the right to operate in the sector. A major shift will also occur in document management: from September 1, 2026, the use of electronic formats for key transport documents will become mandatory. This includes air waybills, rail consignment notes, road transport waybills, freight transport orders and requests, as well as various types of forwarding documents. The government will define specific cases in which paper documents may still be used. Electronic document exchange will be carried out via the State Information System for Electronic Transport Documents (GIS EPD), which has been operational since September 1, 2022. The system is operated by FGUP ZashchitaInfoTrans. The transition is the result of close collaboration between the Russian Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Transport. Currently, GIS EPD supports six types of transport documents for road freight, including the electronic consignment note and electronic waybill. As of September 2024, the system allows for border crossing time reservations at four checkpoints. From September 1, 2025, it will also enable issuance of cabotage transport permits for transport companies from EAEU countries. By the end of this year, the system’s capabilities will be expanded to include documents for water transport operations. To date, the GIS EPD system has registered over 15 million electronic documents, with about 1.5 million new documents processed every month.