Challenges in Land Transportation of Goods Between Russia and Finland in 2018

This Bachelor’s thesis discusses the challenges that could have affected the land transportation logistics between two chosen countries. The primary objective of the study was to identify the impact of the main logistics challenges on the transportation of cargo between Russia and Finland. The aim was thus to provide a list of challenges faced by the logistics companies in 2018 and the solutions that could help to overcome those challenges. The study includes a theory section and an empirical section that provides answers to the research and investigative questions of this thesis. The theory part discusses the regulatory documents that describe the rights and obligations of the parties together with the main details of cargo transportations. Moreover, there is a brief description and explanation of who is in charge of the transportation of loads, how the shipment contract should be concluded, the rules of international transportation and a list of documents necessary for the shipment of good across the Russian-Finnish border. The empirical section of the thesis focused on the challenges in land transportation between two specific countries during the year 2018. In order to achieve the objective of the thesis, qualitative and quantitative research was conducted. A questionnaire was distributed among 35 Finnish and Russian logistics companies and personal interviews were organized with four experts in the transportation field. The researcher received 20 responses, which resulted in ta response rate of 57 percent. The study uncovered seven challenges that included instability of fuel costs, lack of supply chain visibility, impact of economic sanctions on the transportation of goods as well as the effect of the established Russian countermeasures, driver shortage, insufficiency of technological advancement in Russian customs and the consequences of the human factor involved. Finally, the interviewed experts proposed some solutions in order to overcome the identified challenges. However, most of the outcomes appeared ...