
Transport & Logistics Writer
Alexander Petrunin covers freight and logistics markets across Europe, the United States and the CIS — from country guides for Portugal, Spain and France to cross-border trucking and carrier licensing. His articles focus on practical guidance for shippers and carriers: routes, pricing factors and regulation.

Section 122 Expires, Section 301 Arrives: A 2026 Importer's Tariff Playbook
The 10% Section 122 surcharge sunsets on 24 July 2026 and a Section 301 successor is moving into place. Here is a practical playbook for what US importers actually pay next, by country and USMCA status.

Qinghai-Dong Nai Rail Corridor: China to Vietnam Freight in Seven Days
In June 2026 the first direct freight train ran from western China's Qinghai to Vietnam's Dong Nai, cutting transit to about seven days. What the new China-Vietnam rail corridor moves, its route and border reality, and how shippers should read it.

The INSTC in 2026: A Shipper's Guide to the North-South Corridor's Three Branches
A freight-desk guide to the International North-South Transport Corridor in 2026: its three branches, real transit times, surging cargo volumes, and the Rasht-Astara bottleneck that still shapes the western route.

EU ETS for Shipping Hit 100% in 2026: How to Audit Your Carrier's ETS Surcharge
EU ETS reached full coverage in 2026 and now prices methane and nitrous oxide. How ocean-freight buyers audit and challenge the ETS surcharge on their invoice.

Germany’s Rail Overhaul Is Squeezing European Freight: Corridor Closures Through 2027 and a Reroute Playbook
Germany’s Generalsanierung is closing key freight corridors through 2027, diverting up to 140 goods trains a day and straining routes across Austria. What is closing when, the knock-on effects on European freight, and a reroute playbook for shippers.

EU Entry/Exit System Live: 2026 Trucking Impact & Mitigation Playbook
The EU Entry/Exit System is fully live since April 2026. What biometric registration really means for non-EU drivers and cross-border trucking, why border queues formed, and a mitigation playbook for hauliers and freight buyers.

Digitalizing the Middle Corridor in 2026: e-CMR, Digital Transit and What the TITR Work Plan Means for Transit Time
In April 2026 the Trans-Caspian countries approved a digitalisation plan built on e-CMR, electronic transit declarations and shared customs visibility. Our freight desk explains what these do to border dwell on the China to Europe Middle Corridor, plus the Caspian capacity wall no software can fix.

Kazakhstan's 2026 Rail Overhaul: What Mointy-Kyzylzhar Means for Middle Corridor Shippers
The World Bank's $846m guarantee and the new 322.3 km Mointy-Kyzylzhar line are reshaping Kazakhstan's Middle Corridor leg. What the upgrade means for shippers routing China to Europe: more capacity, double-stack, shorter transit.

International Car Shipping in 2026: Methods, Cost, Documents and Cross-Border Lanes
A freight-desk guide to shipping a car internationally in 2026: the four methods and what they cost, transit times and the lanes that actually run, the documents customs gates on, and the cross-border EU and CIS moves the US calculators ignore.

Importing a Used Car into Saudi Arabia in 2026: The 5-Year Rule, SABER and RORO
A freight-desk guide to shipping a used car into Saudi Arabia and the GCC in 2026: the 5-year model-year rule, left-hand-drive and Euro 6b specification, the SABER conformity certificate and SASO energy rating, a worked duty-and-VAT calculation, and the real Jebel Ali to Dammam RORO lane.

MCP Meets the ERP: Writing Freight Bookings Back into SAP TM, Oracle and NetSuite
Part four of the freight MCP series: once an agent books a load, that booking has to land in the system of record. A vendor-neutral reference flow for writing freight bookings back into SAP TM, Oracle and NetSuite, the object-model mapping for each, the idempotency trap that double-books, scoped service identity, and what a marketplace MCP must expose to keep the ledger clean.

GCC Conformity Beyond SABER: ECAS, SASO, G-Mark and Who Needs Which
SABER clears Saudi Arabia and nothing else. A vendor-neutral map of conformity across the Gulf: SABER (SASO) vs ECAS and the Emirates Quality Mark (MoIAT) vs the GCC-wide G-Mark (GSO), plus the SFDA product-category trap, in one matrix and a pre-shipment checklist.
