Transport is as important to the consumer of products as the production process, so the building of cost-effective options for freight delivery is a pressing economic challenge. Rail transport occupies a significant share of the transport market, the importance and efficiency of which increase when transporting a large flow of goods over long distances. Solving an important task of railway transport - full and timely satisfaction of the country𠄉s economy needs in transportation, requires providing further improvement of economic methods of analysis and planning of operational work. Effective management of operational work in freight transportation enables one to manage freight flows in an optimal way and to provide additional volumes of transportation by means of released resources. In this case, the implementation of measures aimed at increasing the speed of vehicles and, as a consequence, reducing the time to the delivery of the cargo is of great importance. As analysis has shown, the largest volume of penalties paid to customers for breach of contractual obligations are payments for failure to meet deadlines for cargo delivery. The results of analytical studies made it possible to identify systemic violations in the quality of the transportation process and to form measures to improve the quality of transport services to customers.