As of 1st April 2020 all passenger flights to and from Russia have been suspended. In order to be able to provide you with an uninterrupted service, we have secured block bookings on cargo only flights throughout April, with an option to extend this into May should it prove necessary to do so.

Unfortunately, with all cargo-only operators charging considerably higher rates during this period of extended lockdown, we have no choice but to reluctantly pass our cost increases on to you.

Effective Monday 6th April, we will temporarily suspend all contract rates currently in force and introduce an Emergency Russia Courier Tariff. These rates, a copy of which can be downloaded here, will be applicable to all courier shipments sent on our express service to Russia until further notice. These rates remain subject to our standard variable fuel and security surcharge.

Shipments sent on our MODE service are unaffected by this change.

We very much regret that this course of action has proved necessary in order to ensure that our service remains consistent and uninterrupted, and we would like to ask for your understanding at this time.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us directly at any time.

As some of you may be aware, Russia will go on full lockdown from midnight tomorrow night. The reality of this will be very similar to that in the UK as a result of the measures introduced by the UK government on Monday night, with only key businesses being allowed to remain open and limited movement of people permitted. We have also just now had a definitive response from Aeroflot confirming that all passenger flights into and out of the Federation will be cancelled from tomorrow.

What does this mean for our services to and from Russia?

LAST OBC DEPARTURE TONIGHT – THURSDAY 26TH MARCH

Tonight will be our last OBC departure, meaning that our standard timed delivery services will be suspended until further notice. We do not expect to be able to resume this service until mid to late April. We will keep you regularly updated.

MOSCOW AND ST PETERSBURG COURIERS FULLY OPERATIONAL

Our dedicated couriers within Moscow and St Petersburg are working as usual, with delivery workers in Russia, as here, having been classified as key workers. However, with so many businesses closed and private individuals in isolation, we do anticipate a significant increase in failed delivery attempts. We can mitigate this to some degree and arrange re-deliveries to alternative addresses more easily if we have up-to-date contact information for consignees. It is therefore more important than ever to ensure that all consignment notes contain a contact name and telephone number for the consignee. If possible, an email address would also be extremely useful.

DELAYS TO OUTTER AREAS

Due to significant restrictions on domestic travel and flight and rail cancellations within the Federation, delays to outer areas are inevitable. We are doing our best to keep these to a minimum, but please understand that our usual transit times will not apply during this period.

NO SIGNATURE CAPTURE

To ensure the wellbeing of our couriers and our customers, we will not be obtaining signatures from consignees for the foreseeable future. Our couriers will instead place any parcels on the reception desk or doorstep of the consignee and stand back at least two metres. They will ask for the name of the receiver and this will be recorded as the POD signature.

RESTRICTED RECEIVING TIMES

We would like to remind you that, in order to keep our staff and customers safe, we have adjusted our receiving policy for courier shipments and restricted our receiving times to a two-hour window from 18:00hrs through to our normal 20:00hrs cut-off time. Our current receiving policy for courier shipments can be found below.

FREIGHTER FLIGHTS OPERATIONAL

A number of freighter services are operating to and from Russia, and In Time has access to all of these. Our brokers and delivery partners are all working, and we therefore anticipate no significant issues with cargo shipments or time-critical deliveries.


Once again, we would like to say a big thank-you to all our customers and suppliers for their understanding and support through this difficult period. We will work tirelessly to keep your business moving and are making it our mission to find solutions for your urgent freight!

We would like to share with you the following information relating to our current service status:

DEDICATED VEHICLE AND GROUPAGE SERVICES CONTINUE AS USUAL

We are pleased to be able to advise that the latest restrictions on European border controls do not relate to freight movements, and that our dedicated vehicle and groupage road services throughout Europe are therefore currently operating with no significant disruption.

In his latest statement, foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said international haulage and freight would not be included in the advice against travel because of the importance of maintaining supply chains for goods, stating that this kind of travel is considered essential and promising to “work with [the industry] to … maintain the flow of goods whilst protecting the wellbeing of staff who are working on those routes”.

In Time will be working closely with our industry partners and suppliers throughout to ensure that Government and NHS guidelines designed to ensure the safety of our staff, clients and partners is at the forefront of everything we do.

FREIGHTER FLIGHTS OPERATIONAL

In light of the travel restrictions imposed by many countries both within and outside of the European Union, a significant proportion of passenger flights have been cancelled, and we expect this trend to continue throughout the coming days and weeks.

Most freighter services, however, are operating to schedule, and there are relatively few restrictions on cargo movements.

At In Time, we have access to all airline freighter services and are actively seeking capacity co-loading on charter flights wherever there is a need.

RUSSIA COURIER SERVICE FULLY OPERATIONAL

Our courier services to Russia, including our twice-weekly on board courier, are currently operating to schedule with no delays.

We have, however, restricted our receiving times to a two-hour window from 18:00hrs through to our normal 20:00hrs cut-off time. Our current receiving policy for courier shipments can be found below.


We would like to thank all our customers and suppliers for their continued support through this difficult period. We will work tirelessly to keep your business moving and are making it our mission to find solutions for your urgent freight!

It goes without saying that, together, we’re experiencing incredibly challenging and unprecedented times. Our top priority is everyone’s health and wellbeing, and we are putting in place some practical measures to ensure that the risk of infection to our staff, clients and suppliers is minimised to the greatest degree possible.

Effective immediately, we will be making some practical changes to the way we receive and handle your regular Russia courier traffic as follows:

• our warehouse will be open to receive shipments daily from 18:00hrs until our regular cut off time of 20:00hrs. Unfortunately we will not be able to receive shipments outside of these times.
• we will be restricting access to our warehouse and offices, and your drivers are therefore requested to kindly place all shipments in the cage provided at the entrance to our warehouse and not to enter the building. A stamp will be provided for any drivers requiring this, but we will not be able to sign any manifests.

Although we enormously regret the impersonal nature of this policy, we hope you will appreciate that it is being implemented for the benefit of all concerned.

Currently there are no changes to our regular Russia courier flights, and we are operating a full schedule.

Obviously the situation with airline schedules and border closures is entirely fluid, and we will keep you informed of any changes to our scheduled operations. We will be posting regular updates on our website, so please keep checking this space for the latest information.

Our time-critical operation remains fully active, and our team is standing by to assist. As more and more flights are cancelled and other services disrupted, we will be working closely with all of our customers and service providers to find practical solutions for any urgent cargo.


We would like to thank you for your support and understanding. Our team is here to help, and we are ready to talk to you regarding any questions or concerns you may have.