Volga-Dnepr eyes domestic 3PL business

It started in 2014 with the delivery of a 500-pound shipment of cable samples to Yakutsk in the Russian Far East, 280 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Since then, the burgeoning 3PL division of the Volga-Dnepr Group has expanded to provide logistics services for the domestic Russian market, as well as to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Volga-Dnepr’s 3PL business also provides warehousing, packing and insurance services.

The first Moscow-to-Yakutsk delivery used the bellyhold of a passenger aircraft to transport the cargo, which was then transferred to a rail link and then to a truck to Kysyl-Syr and Bolshaya Markha, reaching its final destination: engineering firm Telekom-Zapad. As of early October, Volga-Dnepr has shipped a total of 190 tonnes of cargo for the client, covering a combined distance of more than 44,000 miles.

“The customer was satisfied with our service performance for the first shipment and returned to us with a requirement for a series of cable shipments for the Yakutsk Fuel and Energy Company,” said Georgiy Shklyanik, head of logistics at Volga-Dnepr Airlines. “Most recently, we have arranged the trucking of a five-tonne, outsize, low-voltage switchboard from Minsk, Belarus, to Yakutsk. We are now seeing a growing level of inquiries for our logistics services.”

The year-old 3PL division is part of the company’s “Cargo Supermarket” initiative to provide in-house ground logistics support for Volga-Dnepr Airlines and its scheduled-service carrier, AirBridgeCargo Airlines. The division also offers direct services to outside organizations, using all modes of ground transport as well as air transport services contracted from other airlines.

Volga-Dnepr now works with more than 120 subcontractors in Russia and the CIS and currently serves over 100 customers.

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