UNIFICATION OF THE VARIETY OF INTERPRETATIONS OF BASIC DETERMINANTS OF THE CONCEPT “MECHANISM OF STATE REGULATION OF MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT OF GOODS”

Abstract

The article focuses on the need to unify various interpretations of basic determinants of the concept “mechanism of state regulation of multimodal transport of goods”. Its importance in ensuring the effectiveness of the tools of state regulation of multimodal transport was emphasized. It was established that the issues of state regulation of multimodal transport both at the state and the international level remain practically unresolved, as now there are no international or national legal acts that would fully regulate multimodal transport, and therefore there is no clarity in their terminology. The derivational analysis of basic determinants of the concept “mechanism of state regulation of multimodal transport of goods”, namely, etymological, epistemological and ontological analysis of their content was carried out. The features of multimodality expanding the boundaries of understanding the content of the concept “multimodal transport” were defined. The list of priority criteria for ensuring the unity of approaches to the interpretation of the concept “multimodal transport” provided for by the Draft Concept of study on unification of terminology for transport by several modes (mixed, combined, intermodal and multimodal) (United Nations ESCAP) was expanded by adding a group of environmental criteria combining subgroups of economic, social and environmental criteria, as stipulated by the Sustainable Development Goals. Due to the clarity of the defined criteria of unity of approaches to the interpretation of the concept “multimodal transport”, the methodology of unification of this concept was developed and the sequence of stages of its implementation was determined. Each of the stages of methodology of unification of the concept “multimodal transport” was briefly analyzed and their importance in formation of the content of this concept was substantiated. It was proved that ensuring the full value of the content of this concept was possible with the stakeholder approach, as it allowed us to consider the interests of stakeholders in unification of terminology for regulating the multimodal transport. According to the stakeholder approach, the author’s definition of the concept “mechanism of state regulation of multimodal transport of goods” was proposed as a set of tools for regulating the transport of goods by two or more modes of transport that are organized by single opera - tor, who is fully responsible for organization and implementation of transport process based on single transport document and single freight rate, while solving the tasks of reloading the goods, optimizing transport schemes, minimizing transport and logistics costs, as well as maximizing the environmental conservation.