The Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Transport (Rostransnadzor) has granted Russia's Volga Shipping Company a reduction in risk rating from "significant" to "medium," thus indicating an improvement in the latter's ability to transport dangerous goods.
In 2024, Volga Shipping was among the first shipping companies in Russia to enter into an agreement with Rostransnadzor regarding cooperation in the monitoring of licenced activities related to the transport and transshipment of dangerous goods.
The transition to a lower risk category came after Rostransnadzor determined that Volga Shipping was able to successfully implement a series of safety measures, as evidenced by a significant decline in the number of accidents and port state control detentions involving the company's vessels.
Sergey Veselkov, Director for Navigation Safety at Volga Shipping, said that the improvement in safety was made possible through internal audits; training; post-accident investigations; identification of the root causes of accidents and the implementation of measures to prevent the occurrence of such causes; and revisions to the company's safety management system.