While most sectors of the Russian economy still lag behind Soviet performance levels, the business of trucking cargo in and out the country has been racing ahead, with record growth over the last decade.

But the road is far from clear for the industry, which has to haul its way through numerous obstacles, including a thorny customs regime, degrading fleets, limited resources for upgrades, and growing competition from other post-Soviet countries.

According to the Moscow-based Association of International Road Carriers (ASMAP), Russian tractor-trailer rigs transported 7.1 million tons of cargo last year, compared with the 1.5 million tons annually carried by vehicles from all the republics of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.

The industry, formerly dominated by state-run monopoly Sovtransavto, received a boost in the early 1990s, with the advent of a market economy and a massive groundswell in demand for foreign goods.

At that time, many private trucking companies emerged, with fleets of roughly 10 vehicles or less, as well as logistics firms, which did not have their own fleets but provided transportation, customs clearance and warehouse storage services on a subcontract basis.

The sector also benefited from the opening of borders to foreign imports, with hundreds of cargo vehicles shuttling between Russia and Europe on trips sometimes lasting several weeks to bring Russians anything from hygiene products to electronics made by leading foreign producers eager to enter the market here.

Even now, a decade later, imports still dominate road cargo between Russia and the West, industry insiders say.

"About 80 percent of the cargo we transport is imports," said Dmitry Vashbein, general director of the Intrans Pushkino company, which specializes in road-cargo transportation between Moscow and locations in Western and Northern Europe.

"We carry some exports from time to time, but it is mostly raw materials, such as timber," added Mikhail Petrov, senior sales manager at the Elfor logistics company based in Moscow. "We seldom transport finished goods from Russia," he said.

The most common destinations for Elfor's clients are Finland, Holland, Germany and Italy, according to Petrov. Other operators also named Denmark, Spain, Belgium, Slovakia and Poland.

About 2,000 Russian companies are operating in the international road-cargo market, with about 15,000 tractor-trailer rigs in use on routes between Russia and Europe, according to ASMAP.

Western European truckers are reluctant to go to Russia, fearing criminality, bad roads and the arbitrary behavior of officials. This gives their colleagues from the former Soviet Union a competitive advantage.

Another competitive advantage for Russian truckers is relatively low prices that have not yet bounced back from the 30-40 percent drop that occurred after the 1998 financial meltdown.

What Russian truck companies charge for transportation between Europe and Russia is normally 20 percent lower than prices offered by their colleagues in Western Europe, said Petrov, adding that his company subcontracts Western cargo companies only on special occasions – when the client needs additional security or services that Russian truckers don't provide.

"Sometimes, a client needs a full-metal rig or a security escort, and then we have to subcontract Western operators," Petrov said. "But normally, the quality of services that Russian companies provide satisfies the clients' needs," he added.

The rates are not strictly tied to the mileage, said Yevgeny Sergienko, a manager at the Russian Logistics Service in Russia, adding that there is normally one fixed rate for each country, with Germany and Holland being the least expensive in Western Europe, and Spain and Italy the most expensive.

The average cost of transportation for a tractor-trailer rig between Germany and Moscow is $2,200; between Finland and Moscow, $1,200; between Italy and Moscow, $3,300, according to ASMAP.

Another reason why Russian companies are preferable to clients is that most of them are Russian importers that pay in rubles, while foreign transport companies require payments in hard currency, Sergienko added. The Russian Logistics Service has used the services of Western truckers only on a few occasions, he said.

But it's not only Russian firms that make use of this competitive advantage. Trucking companies from neighboring countries can offer even better prices, often winning over clients from their Russian colleagues.

At the moment, Russian companies control only 40 percent of the road-cargo market between Russia and elsewhere, with Ukrainian, Belarusian and Baltic truckers dominating the remainder.

Last year, other non-Russian cargo companies from post-Soviet countries made about 200,000 trips between Russia and Western Europe – almost the same as Russian transport firms. Laws in Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic States are better for the development of the international road-cargo business, Russian truck companies complain.

In those countries, taxes are lower, including those on imports of tractor-trailers, said Vashbein of Intrans Pushkino. "Here, [official agencies] always rip us off," he added. "They make us pay huge taxes and customs duties."

A lack of working capital and high customs duties and taxes on imported or leased tractor-trailers and rigs is one of the most acute problems Russian trucking companies must face, industry insiders say.

Although most Russian road-cargo firms operate Ivecos, Scanias, Renaults, and Volvos, a significant number of them opt for cheaper Russian-made KamAZes or Belarusian MAZes.

However, these are not good for journeys to Western Europe and are generally used for destinations in Poland or Slovakia, industry insiders say.

"We haven't used MAZes for several years," Vashbein said. "We tried some a few years ago, but had to get rid of them."

Russia's constantly changing legislation does not make a trucker's life easier, either, industry insiders complain. "I don't remember a single year when no new regulations were introduced," Vashbein said. "They are always introducing new licenses or inspections or regulations."

Truck drivers often complain of arbitrary actions by road police and customs officials eager to get bribes.

According to Vashbein, they use loopholes in the regulations to extort money from drivers. He added that there's nothing of that kind in Western Europe, where police and state regulations are normally reasonable.

But despite the hardships, the sector is chugging along. "We face a lot of problems but we eventually solve all of them," said Vashbein. "Otherwise, we wouldn't be in business."

ASMAP experts say they see growth opportunities for the sector because international road cargo currently accounts for only 6.6 percent of all international cargo in Russia, with the optimum figure for the country calculated at 12 percent. Another opportunity, they say, would be expansion to Middle Eastern and Asian markets.