Tariffs for railway transport of goods regulate all the issues related to freight transport, and/or consignments, and from tariff point of view the attention is in particular paid to transport prices issue, and/or transportation costs, supplementary charges, accessory charges, as well as other transportation costs.

Railway tariffs are divided into:

• domestic, implemented on the territory of a country,
• international, implemented to transports among two or more countries.

Railway freight transport tariff consits of the following parts:

Part 1   −   Transport conditions and transport costs calculation,
Part 2   −   Goods classification,
Part 3   −   List of railway stations,
Part 4   −   Distance table for railway freight transport,
Part 5   −   Destination board,
Part 6   −   Price list of railway services,
Part 6a −   Private-sidings and handling charges
Part 7   −   Transit tariff.

In addition to aforementioned tariffs, there is also DIUM RS – Uniform distance table in international freight traffic: List of stations in freight traffic- list of places for delivery/acceptance of goods, which is published solely in electronic form on the UIC site as follows:

• Word format  -  prepared twice per year:

• Excel format  -  prepared once per month and serves exclusively for railway needs (railway undertakings):

Tariff for freight transport Part 1 − Transport conditions and transport costs calculation contains four units:

• general transport conditions,
• transport costs calculation,
• specific transport conditions and transport costs calcualtion and
• annexes.

General transport conditions predominantly contain provisions prescribed in Laws on transport agreements in railway traffic and they are stated according to procedures schedule starting from acceptance to freight delivery. 

Transport costs calculation represent the essential part of Tariff Part 1 because it contains regulations for transport costs calculation- from general regulations, regulations for transport costs calcualtion of part-load consignments to regulations for transport costs calculation of wagon-load consignments.

Specific transport conditions and transport costs calculation, refer to consignments for which general terms for transport costs calculation cannot be applied, or these being the consignments for which additional transport terms are required, and thereby, in most cases, transport costs are increased.

Annexes (seven of them) are stated at the end of Tariff Part 1, with a view of further explanation of certain set conditions.

Goods classification on ŽS lines is based on the translation of the original text of Harmonized list of goods (NHM) of UIC and Law on customs tariff.
Harmonized list of goods (NHM) exclusively exist in electronic format.

Two tariff classes are envisaged by the Goods classification on ŽS lines.

This Tariff consists of:

• Positions list
• Goods list ordered alphabetically

Positions list of Goods classification is divided into 22 sections, marked from I to XXII 99 chapters and contains over 12700 positions.

Railway undertakings, members of International Railway Union (UIC), are obliged to enter 6-digit code (password) in the appropriate column of consignment note intended for goods identification.

Railway stations listcontains railway stations open for passengers routing, acceptance and goods and baggage delivery as well as the data about plants and facilities it disposes of.
Stations are arrayed according to the alphabetical list and each contains its own password.

Appropriate columns are envisaged for each station in Railway stations list:

• Station name and its password,
• Railway undertaking which the station belongs to,
• Box on the ticket,
• Open for traffic of: passengers, baggage, express, part-load and wagon-load consignments, live animals,
• plants: depot, freight car or road scales, ordinary goods platform, end-loading platform, crane, loading gauge, enabled for sanding of wagons,
• remarks.

Tariff Part 4 – Distance table for freight transport represents one of the elements for transport costs determination.

It is used for chargeable distance calculation between railway stations during the transport of part-load and wagon-load consignments.

It contains permitted load in tonnes per axle and chargeable distances among railway stations.

Distance table consists of the following parts:

Part I – Lines list, with ordinal numbers, territory, line length as well as page number in which the line is stated,

Part II – Stations list with ordinal numbers of a line and page number in which the station is stated,

Part III – Permitted loads and chargeable distances between stations, with total number of chargeable distances from departure to terminal station and/or border crossing.

Part IV – Railway network map which contains lines network.

Determination of transport route in advance for all consignments is of great importance both for railway and users of transport services.

Destination board contains transport routes from all to all official places on railway network open for transport of part-load and wagon-load consignments.

Part-load and wagon-load consignments are forwarded by means of transport routes set forth by this Destination board, but for consignor prescribes transport route on his own.

Destination board consists of two parts:

• stations list,
• forwarding list with transport routes.

Tariff Part 6  - Railway services price list contains tariff Lists for:

• domestic traffic (transportation items for part-load consignments, transportation items for wagon-load consignments, calculated transportation costs for loaded and empty big containers) and
• import/export (transportation items for part-load consignments of express transport in traffic with Montenegro, transportation items for wagon-load consignments and calculated transportation costs  for consignments of loaded and empty containers).

Besides aforementioned tariff lists, this tariff contains as well:

• accessory charges included in transport fare,
• transportation costs and charges prescribed in Tariff Part 1,
• price list for damaged and lost loading tackle and
• price list of forms for sale.

Tariff Part 6a is of great importance for railway, as well as for users of transport services regarding the fact that more than a half of total transport of wagon-load consignments is performed via private sidings in all railway undertakings.

This tariff contains prices and terms for calculation of private-siding charges for delivery and shunting of wagons, as well as of separated stations from and to handling places (connected by rail connection) on handling lines.

Tariff consists of three sections:

• Section 1 – private-siding charges
• Section 2 – special tracks charges
• Section 3 – handling lines charges.

Amount of charges in tariff are stated per one wagon in dinars and euros.

Transit tariff is valid for consignments which in international traffic are forwarded as wagon-load or part-load consignments in transit on the territory of our country as follows:

• Through land border crossings,
• Through Serbian river ports,
• Through other railway stations, if consignments under incessant customs or railway surveillance are transported further for abroad in road, air or river traffic and vice versa and
• Through land border crossings and larger river ports for and from free customs zones.