The new LPI ranking of the World Bank: from bad to worse

The new Logistics Performance Index (LPI) ranking of the World Bank has been published. Participants and contributors are the same: officials of the World Bank (paid by us in a way while financed out of the taxes we pay too) and students of the University of Turku.

The beloved Finland went up to the third position (after Singapore and Hong Kong). Germany was ousted from the first position – why so? – Not fair. Estonia – friendly, active and more electronic than Finland – was dropped by twenty points.

Russia dropped by 1 point – to the 95th position

We’ve written it many times in the pas, when the previous LPI was released in early 2010, https://www.infranews.ru/?object=news&id=8204&catid=2: why treat Russia like that?

One point is always true. Our customs – is the worst. Here no one would argue.

But everything else – Finns’ delirium. Well, for example: they say the average cost of inland delivery per TEU in imports is $5k. Which is exactly. Actually, $5k – is a 40 feet HD from Vladivostok to Moscow with guarded escort, which happens. Yet most containers are delivered from St.Petersburg to Moscow, which is $2K at the most. If only for decency, they might have introduced some index: distances is not a problem, it is a geographic reality!

Sea shipment is deemed by the authors the most expensive. they say it is $2K for a delivery to a Russian sea port (which is any port). While in fact delivery from Shanghai to a port in the Russian Far East is just $700, the rates from Shanghai to St.Petersburg differed in the last two years: it was $1K at a time, it was $2.5K at another time. But on average, a 40’ (which is 2 TEU) is shipped at the rate of $1.5-1.8K.

So this is lies as well.

Let us note that Finland has recently ceased to earn on serving the Russian transit – it’s volume goes down and down. So they gave trucking volumes to Russia. Part of the container traffic  – to Estonia (is it not for this that they rated Estonia that low, while the ranking of Lithuania, which does not serve transit, went up).

There you go. Once again – about the customs – the general sense is true, but the rates and terms are not! And of course – the company of such respected logistics market participants with vast consumer markets, inexhaustible logistical and human resources, and no internal conflicts at all as Guinea-Bissau or Lebanon kills the whole idea of ranking.

And the fact that troubled Egypt went 20 point up should be a reward for the revolution.

Pakistan, from where American Logistics moved to Ulyanovsk, is ranked higher than Russia. Malta, where the internal delivery of goods on foot is faster than our physical delivery by plane from St.Petersburg to Moscow, is ranked higher.

Yemen, where pirates are lodged since long, and a civil war has been raging for many years, is ranked higher than Russia. I have seen here at the airport the Yemeni middle class – a flight from Sanaa (the capital) arrived to Kuala Lumpur at the same time with ours. Well, the real poor. No offense to these people. But the poor.