The transport moved from Voronezh to the destination point. The biggest difficulty on the way was the Vitim river. During the warm season there is a ferry across the river and in the cold season there is a winter road across the river. The crossing point is located in Bodaibo (the Irkutsk region).
Usually, the Vitim river freezes in early November. But in 2021, even in the middle of the month, the weather in the region was still quite warm. Our car reached the nearest large northern settlement on Lake Baikal called Severobaikalsk, and we began to expect the river to freeze. The client informed that the cargo must be delivered urgently by a certain date. Thus, within a week we had to overcome the remaining 761 km from Severobaikalsk to our destination point in Kropotkin.
We started to search for alternative delivery options. All routes by land and water were connected with the Vitim river, which was still not frozen. It was risky to expect the formation of a stable ice cover on the river, since there was a high probability of not having enough time to deliver the cargo. The option with aerial sleds also was rejected, since the transportation time in this case was about two weeks, while there were no guarantees that the process would not be delayed. Thus, there was only one way left: the transportation by air.
The top-management of TRASKO branch in Voronezh, which supervised the transportation, was managed to find a reliable airline that was ready to provide a helicopter for transportation. The nearest airport where a helicopter landing was possible is Nizhneangarsk, which is 30 kilometers from the current location of the low-tonnage truck with cargo. We realized that there was no further need to use a low-tonnage car for delivery to the airport and decided to move the cargo onto a manipulator and continued our journey to Nizhneangarsk.
The helicopter was supposed to fly from Irkutsk, which is 4 hours of flight from Nizhneangarsk. However, on the day of thew departure (Saturday), the weather was non-flying and the helicopter commander postponed the departure to Sunday. The tension was growing, because on Monday the cargo was already supposed to be at the destination point.
On Sunday, the Mil Mi-8T helicopter landed in Nizhneangarsk and we started the second stage of transportation including loading the cargo into a helicopter. We were ready for this challenge since we realized that we would use this type of transport. There was no free loader either in Severobaikalsk or at the airport of the departure. It was decided to use pallets and a mechanical loader.
The cargo manipulator brings the IBCs as close as possible to the cargo compartment of the helicopter. Then the cargo was placed on pallets and with the help of a mechanical loader was tightened inside the cargo compartment and placed there. After the cargo was securely fixed inside the helicopter compartment in accordance with the existing rules and standards of fastening, the helicopter moved to Bodaibo Airport, which is located 360 km in a straight line from Nizhneangarsk. By the way, full-fledged traffic on the ice winter road on the Muscovite — Mamakan route along the Vitim river was opened only on January 17, 2022.
Upon arrival in Bodaibo, the cargo was moved onto a a new manipulator and continued its way to Kropotkin. Despite the 5 hours’ time difference as well as difficulties and force majeure circumstances during the delivery, the cargo was successfully delivered to the destination point in accordance with the agreed terms. Overall, the cargo covered of about 6,500 km.
TRASKO has been successfully delivering various cargoes around the world for over 26 years. The high expertise of the company is confirmed by thousands of satisfied customers and tens of thousands of successfully realized deliveries. We will be glad to provide all our experience and competencies to offer the optimal and high-quality solution for your logistics issues.