Russia’s transport sector is entering the final stretch before mandatory electronic document circulation becomes the rule rather than the exception, with September 1 set as the point when digital paperwork will move from pilot projects and best practice to legal necessity.
Federal Law No. 140-FZ, adopted in June 2025, requires a broad range of participants in freight transport to use electronic transport waybills, forwarding documents, orders and requests, while paper will su...
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rvive only in limited cases, such as confirmed communications outages, work in officially designated no-signal areas or dealings with foreign counterparties. The Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Transport say the framework is largely in place, but the forum discussions reported by Computerra showed that the industry still has practical questions to resolve.
The government’s position, set out by Vitaly Tekhtelyov, deputy director of the Ministry of Transport’s digital development department, is that the logic will be simple: if a shipment begins on paper, it ends on paper; if it starts electronically, it must remain electronic through to completion. The State Information System for Electronic Transport Documents, known as GIS EPD, has been operating since 2022 and, according to officials, has already processed tens of millions of documents. The ministry says the platform has been built with redundancy and has maintained availability of about 99.5%.
Dmitry Zavernyaev, director of digital logistics at the state enterprise ZashitaInfoTrans, said the system is certified as part of critical information infrastructure and hosted in a government cloud. He added that, if the platform is temporarily unavailable, operators can store documents locally and upload them later, although a fully disaster-proof backup site is still under development.
The regulatory base is also close to completion. According to the Federal Tax Service, the document formats developed with business have already been approved and are awaiting registration with the Justice Ministry. Aviation, rail and forwarding document templates are ready, and operators are expected to receive the relevant XSD schemas in early June.
Yet the most sensitive issue remains connectivity. The ministry says paper documents will still be valid where internet access is absent in officially recognised dead zones or where a technical failure is confirmed. If a carrier has a contract with an operator but loses connection unexpectedly, it can obtain a supporting certificate and continue on paper without breaching the rules.
Officials and industry representatives also discussed how checks will work on the road. Inspectors will be able to verify documents directly in GIS EPD, by scanning a QR code that carries the necessary information even without internet access, or by using a paper copy. Tekhtelyov also pointed to the existing rules of the road, which already allow an electronic transport waybill to be presented in a convenient digital form or as a paper copy.
Another layer of complexity comes from operations in agriculture and other remote sectors, where transport can be organised literally in the field. Polina Davydova, director of the Digital Transport and Logistics association and adviser to the transport minister, acknowledged that the industry has raised the issue repeatedly, but said no universal solution has yet emerged.
Questions also remain around roaming, mobile applications and the role of intermediaries. The Federal Tax Service said so-called white lists, which allow access to critical systems, are controlled by the Digital Development Ministry and are intended for the most important services. In some cases, the tax authority suggested, integrators may have to work through sector regulators or through EDO operators already included in the protected lists.
The rail sector’s ETRAN system will not exchange data directly with GIS EPD, officials said; instead, electronic document operators are expected to serve as the bridge. That approach keeps ETRAN running in its current form while routing information into the state platform through the operators.
Perhaps the thorniest issue is the consignee. The law obliges recipients to sign electronic documents, but there is no clear liability yet for refusing to do so. That leaves carriers with a practical problem at the point of unloading. Denis Salikh, head of EDO at SKB Kontur, admitted there is still no ready-made answer, and businesses are increasingly addressing the risk in supply contracts by writing in a duty to sign digitally.
Beyond the document system itself, the ministry is building a wider digital transport architecture. Sergei Solovyev of SIC Mintrans presented GosLog, a platform intended to bring carriers, regulators, operators and logistics services into a single digital environment. Unlike GIS EPD, GosLog is still at an early stage.
Cybersecurity is also becoming part of the reform. Tekhtelyov said the ministry has created an отраслевой centre of competence on cyber defence, which will provide analysis, methodological support and coordination during attacks. The model, he said, is inspired by the way the Bank of Russia supports financial institutions.
For now, the message from regulators is that the system is ready. The harder test lies with businesses, many of which still need to secure digital signatures, connect to EDO operators and train staff before the September deadline. As one industry representative put it, the danger is not technology failure on day one, but companies waiting until the last moment to adapt.
Source: Noah Wire Services
