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CIM Committee takes forward-looking decisions
On 26 March 2026, at the invitation of the OTIF Secretary General, the CIM Committee of CIT held its 29th session at the renovated premises of the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) in Bern, Switzerland. Under the Chairmanship of Julie Meunier (SNCF/Hexafret), 15 CIT members of the CIM Committee with 25 participants attended in person and online.
New legal challenges
The CIT General Secretariat delivered a clear overview of all the topics on the agenda and described the challenges and new developments ahead, particularly regarding data exchange within the CIM consignment note in cooperation with RailData, the URL consignment note project with UNECE (UNECE mark-up), and revision of the COTIF CIM and CUV Uniform Rules with OTIF.
On the level of the CIT freight products, a new boilerplate clause for substitute carriage was unanimously approved. The aim of this work is to achieve a high degree of harmonisation of the legal provisions so that CIT members using a boilerplate contract and/or clause can benefit from more detailed and standardised provisions than those contained in the CIT General Terms and Conditions for Subcontracting (General Terms and Conditions Applying to Contracts for Subcontracting the Carriage of Freight Traffic (GTC sub-contract).
The most compelling challenges and tasks for the CIT freight agenda concern the use of the electronic CIM consignment note and the parameters and information contained in this digital form that will need to be retained, reused and further developed in accordance with the TEL TSI. Because the CIM eCN is a living document, it will ensure the transition to this new version of the TEL TSI while retaining the necessary flexibility and scope for any specific amendments that may prove necessary (customs requirements, waste shipments, attached documents, information from third parties, etc.). It must also be compatible with other areas of freight traffic regulation (eFTI Regulation environment, new waste regulations under EU DIWASS Regulation, dangerous goods/RID provisions, as well as combined transport).
CIT digital answers
The growing need for broader access to CIM consignment note data and a need for additional provisions in this area, particularly in relation to the exchange of information between railway undertakings and external third-party partners such as ports, terminals and freight forwarders was also presented. The involvement of third parties after the approval of the TEL TSI, which are not expressly mentioned in the CIM consignment note, leads to a complexity that requires more detailed consideration. In international freight traffic, the exchange of data between the various participants is essential for smooth operations; however, it must be handled with care to ensure compliance with existing regulations and to safeguard the confidentiality of all parties' data. CIT has therefore initiated discussions with representatives of RailData on the exchange of data from the CIM consignment note with third parties, such as terminals and port infrastructures, particularly in the context of the revision of the TEL TSI.
It is important to note that, although the content of the GLV-CIM for the electronic CIM consignment note in Appendix 1 does not explicitly address all forms of data processing involving third parties, data exchange may be extended beyond these regulations provided that contractual agreements are in place and data confidentiality requirements are duly observed for the purpose of upgrading the functional specifications for data exchange based on subsets. For security purposes, a new confidentiality clause will be developed in the framework of the EDI Contract in Appendix 7a of the CIT Freight Traffic Manual (GTM-CIT).
We are very happy to announce that the 30th meeting of the CIM Committee will be held in-person in Bern at CIT premises on Thursday, 25 March 2027, with an additional programme in the context of the celebrations for 125 Years of CIT.