ERTMS, the Digital Automatic Coupler, the Combined Transport and Capacity Regulations: those are just some of the big key topics for the European rail freight industry. That is for good reason. Yet, another but rarely mentioned foundational document for the sector is currently under review. It could overhaul the workings of the industry entirely.
It is rarely ever discussed: the General Contract of Use of Wagons (GCU). This legal document details the mutual rights and obligations of wagon keepers and Railway Undertakings with regard to the use of rail freight wagons.
Without it, there would be no framework for traction providers to have externally owned freight wagons at their disposal, for instance. The entire European rail freight industry rests upon this framework with around 840 signatories.
The highly impactful GCU is now under scrutiny, head of wagon keeper association UIP Peter Reinshagen tells RailFreight.com. Together with ERFA and UIC, UIP wants to overhaul the twenty-year-old document.
A new document for a new era
“The GCU was set up 20 years ago with minimum cost and minimum impact on the signatories”, Peter Reinshagen says. The contract is no longer entirely fit for the current era. A modernised GCU could be more adapted to Entities in Charge of Maintenance (ECM) with standardisation, digitalisation and cost-orientation.
Moreover, a better mechanism to resolve disputes could improve efficiency. “If you are disputing all the time, wagons are standing still. With an arbitrage system, wagons can keep running and the dispute can be resolved in the meantime. This is most cost-effective”, explains Reinshagen.
At the same time, not all signatories feel involved with the GCU when changes are being made. This is particularly true for those that are not represented by associations.
“We are now at a level where we need professionalism, arbitration, training, more standardisation and digitalisation, et cetera”, explains Reinshagen. That could improve the system underpinning all of European rail freight significantly. What’s more, one could do this at relatively little cost, says the UIP head.
Pay a bit more, receive a lot in return
Now, signatories pay €300 annually for their participation in GCU. “If we just increase the costs by a bit, we could improve the functioning of GCU immensely”, explains Reinshagen. The idea is to have a contract that organises “everything”.
“We could extend it to cover insurance, and then responsibility issues become less relevant. We could have a new organisation that runs the GCU, that runs the insurance scheme that would enter into the game when no responsible party is found. It could have a shared maintenance rulebook that applies to all parties.” As an added benefit, this standardisation would also make digitalisation an easier process.
An overhaul of GCU is not on any particular policy agenda, nor is it a given. It is merely an idea that is being worked out. “We have a joint committee and a mandated consultant to get the views from all the signatories. This is an ongoing process”, explains Reinshagen.
The idea is to define the scope, for which there will be a seminar in October. Then the initiators will organise a big seminar later this year to see what the changes could actually look like.
“Rail freight is a joint product”, concludes Reinshagen. “Railway Undertakings can use wagons ‘for free’ because shippers and freight forwarders pay for it. This is all made possible through GCU — the perfect example of the undertakings and wagon keepers being together in the same boat.”