Source: United Nations (2006)RESTRI

Source: United Nations (2006)
RESTRICTIONS FOR THE EVOLUTION OF MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT IN BRAZIL
Since the "Multimodal Transport Convention" UN 1980, the Brazilian government has discussed the rules of Multimodal Transport and its regulation. The first substantial action, in order to allow the establishment of clear rules on the door to door transport in Brazil (with a single agent responsible for the whole supply chain), emerged in 1994 with the Agreement for the Facilitation of Multimodal Transport for MERCOSUR.
From this agreement, which applies only if the Document or Bill of Lading expressly refer to the agreement have been established the main legislative provisions for this activity:
- Decree No. 1563 of 1995 ruling the signed Agreement; - Law No. 9611 of 1998, known as the Brazilian Law of Multimodal Transport and, finally, - Decree No. 3411, 2000, which regulates the Law - Decree No. 5276 of 2004 amending Decree No. 3411.
According to the legislation mentioned above we can say that Multimodal Transport is regulated in Brazil. Why it doesn´t work then? This is a question that must be answered from two aspects: legal and infrastructure.
Legal Aspect
Besides the difficulties in achieving uniformity in international regulation, there is another legal barrier to make the Multimodal Transport more effective in Brazil.
i) Taxes: There are officially 434 MTO in Brazil (12). They are registered and authorized by the Brazilian government (Inland Transport National Agency) to operate. To support the multimodal operation has been set a standard Multimodal Bill of Lading approved by the State Secretaries of Finance in 2003.
ii) A major difficulty in using the document is due to tax issues. The Tax on Goods and Services Movements - GSMT applies to all interstate transport operation and is regulated separately and differently by each state
(Brazil has 27 states plus the Federal District). According to Mr. Thiers Costa, a member of the Transport National Confederation, regarding transport taxes in Brazil: "Brazil is a different country in each state".
As in the Multimodal Transport, cargo can be transported through many states, before reaching its final destination, there are huge rule differences between each state when it comes to taxes collecting, making it difficult to collect taxes properly. This situation encourages logistical inefficiency, such as making unnecessary transport or the use of longer routes, damaging the national economic system. Now a days, the transport is performed with the issuance of many documents (and many people responsible), which features an Intermodal transport.
Additionally, some of these states believe that taxes on transport also focus on export operations, increasing the costs of Brazilian exported products and making our price less competitive in the international market. An ideal solution would be a complete political reform in the tax system, standardizing tax rates and collecting procedures in all the 27 states and the federal district.
Another legal barrier which impacted negatively on the implementation of multimodal transport in Brazil was the cargo insurance. Law 9.611/98 and Decree 3411/00 established a new legal barrier for the implementation of Multimodal Transport in Brazil: requires the MTO, for the release of the registry, an insurance policy covering their liability on the goods under his custody. To get this policy from an insurance company was practically impossible, since no insurance company offered to guarantee a still undefined transport. This problem was solved with the publication of Decree No. 5276/2004 which removed the requirement for the insurance policy in the act of registration of the MTO at National inland Transport Agency -ANTT. This decree had a significant impact in the market, since after issuing the decree the number of OTM registered rose from 30 in 2004 to 164 in 2005.

In Brazil, it is responsibility of the National inland Transport Agency – ANTT, to propose enabling Multimodal Transport Operators, monitoring the Multimodal Transportation and coordinating with professional associations, shippers, cargo owners, regulatory agencies in other modes, government agencies and others involved with the movement of goods to promote multimodal transport. ANTT is a federal regulatory agency bounded, but not hierarchically subordinated, to the Transport Ministry.
Infrastructure
The existing infrastructure of transport in Brazil represents a barrier to the integration of different transport modes. It is important to emphasize the great contribution of the transport by road. This is alarming information, taking into consideration the territorial continental dimensions of Brazil. Figure 1, below, shows transport matrix in Brazil.

Figure 2 shows the share of transport mentioned above, including the data related to other countries. Note that in this chart, Brazil should be located close to countries with the same geographical size, however, is close to countries with dimensions up to ten times smaller.
Following are listed five parameters which, among others, best explain the distortion presented above:
i) Transport by road: Currently, freight by road is considerably cheap. The almost total deregulation and high unemployment in the market led to the emergence of a large number of independent carriers, charging freight rates below their own costs. These aspects reflect a high rate of accidents, caused mainly by lack of maintenance on the vehicles, the high average age of the fleet, loadings heavier than allowed and the long hours that independent drivers are submitted. These unrealistic freight values become a competition disadvantage compared to other modes of transportation that are more efficient in long distance.
ii) Rail Transport: Before the process of privatization of railroads began, the Brazilian government has continually reduced investment in the railway sector. Currently, private companies that took control of the granted railroads have a serious problem related to infrastructure and maintenance of rolling stock.
iii) Maritime Transport: The average productivity of Brazilian ports is around 20 TEU / h. This figure is 50% below the global benchmark. The excessive man power used in Brazilian ports is the main cause for the inefficient performance. Additionally, the number of ships built by the Brazilian shipyards had a huge drop in recent decades.
iv) Waterway Transport: Brazil has a huge network of inland waterways, but their use for transportation is small. The interior navigation has the lowest rate of investment in the sector over the last decade. Also the lack of integrated actions, based on rivers multiple use, has hampered the effective potential of this mode of transport
v) Multimodal Terminal: A small number of Multimodal terminals and excessive bureaucracy, especially in the international trade area are other factors that inhibit the development of Multimodality in Brazil. The inefficiency in cargo transportation generates an excess of inventory, designed to avoid delays in deliveries and resolve problems caused by accidents and theft.