Business

Everything is under control: customs is preparing to scan railroad cars and containers

Ukraine will have the first scanning systems for round-the-clock and fully automated inspection of railroad cars and containers. This was reported by the State Customs Service, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.

These modern scanning systems are designed for nonintrusive control, which means that they allow to check the compliance of the contents of wagons with what is declared in the documents without additional interventions and effectively identify potential risks associated with smuggling, including tobacco products, drugs, and other prohibited substances.

What are the capabilities of the new scanners?

Due to the high image detail, customs officers will be able to recognize even small hidden elements in the wagon structures, such as in the floor or walls. The scanners meet the highest standards in terms of depth of penetration, detail, and image quality, allowing materials to be identified by their structure.

The scanners are also equipped with special components and software for automated selection of cars suitable for scanning, making it impossible to scan passenger cars and locomotives.

When and where will new scanners appear?

The first railroad scanners will appear in Ukraine by the end of 2025 to monitor trains arriving and departing from the Mostyska-2 and Yahodyn railway stations on the border with Poland.

In addition, agreements are underway to supply international partners with stationary scanning systems for inspecting railcars at checkpoints on the border with Slovakia and Romania.

“The scanning process will be fully automated with round-the-clock operation and the possibility of bi-directional scanning,” said Sergiy Zvyagintsev, Head of the State Customs Service.

What part of exports may be under the control of scanners

More than 90 percent of Ukrainian exports are carried out by sea and rail. In particular, in 2024, 69% of exports were by sea, while 23% of domestic products were exported from Ukraine by rail.

Modern technologies also simplify other customs procedures

Customs uses artificial intelligence to improve its efficiency and develop modern services.

One of these innovations was the update of the section “Importation of a passenger car” in the Personal Account on the Single Window for International Trade portal. According to the State Customs Service, the customs declaration can now be prepared even more easily and quickly thanks to two key improvements.

First, it is about recognizing the characteristics of the car by VIN: just enter the VIN, and the system will automatically try to find the technical data of the vehicle.

Secondly, it is about automatically filling in part of the declaration columns based on a photo of the technical passport: you just need to upload an image of the document and artificial intelligence will read all the possible characteristics of the car contained in the technical passport. The system will offer the rest of the data based on the VIN.

Two key technologies have also recently been integrated into the new Automated Risk Management System, which will be introduced in 2024:

– the use of Microsoft’s OpenAI generative artificial intelligence

– a business analysis (BI) system of our own design.

The integration of the two systems has made it possible to combine their strengths: if a shipment is indicated by AI and simultaneously has the characteristics of a “red cluster” according to BI data, then such a shipment is considered risky with a high degree of confidence, which allows generating appropriate forms of customs control.

According to the State Customs Service, this approach is particularly relevant in connection with the upcoming legislative changes to the taxation of international postal and express shipments.