TURKEY\\\ >> 20
weekly train ex Sete, Southern
France to Calais, then linking up with the sailings ex Calais to Tilbury or Dover. This can result in trailers moving ex Turkey to the UK with no driver intervention at all until reaching the UK where Davies Turner takes over with UK
Issue 1 2020 - Freight Business Journal
haulage, allowing Ekol’s drivers to remain in the EU. Davies Turner also has
significant sea freight to the UK, with extensions to the Far East and the US, and air cargo is also a useful option. Stephenson
concludes: “Turkey is a very volatile but
robust and strong market. The trials and tribulations of the Lira falling to 10 to the Pound only seemed to galvanise the market in general. The economists will declare difficult times ahead, with the Lira falling or inflation at uncontrollable levels yet the market for Davies Turner even
at its worst has remained steady, moving around 100 trailers per week and at best it continues to provide us with opportunities to increase our market share as well as bringing new and unrivalled enhancements to our overall services.” Brexit is another topic when
It may have been said many times before, but Turkey really is a bridge between the East and West, says intermodal operator P&O Ferrymasters (POFM). It is, in other words, a transit
country between Europe, CIS, Russia and Middle East/Asia. In recent years, the country’s many infrastructure projects have included the new Istanbul airport, the third Bosphorus bridge, the second tunnel under the Bosphorus, new highways and high speed rail lines across the country. Moreover, pipelines bringing oil and gas from Russia and the CIS countries to Europe cross Turkey. The rail route between Baku
(Azerbaijan), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Kars (Turkey) was opened two years ago, and could be an important milestone in the Middle Corridor of China’s One Belt One Road project. The first train from China to Europe passed through the Marmaray Bosphorus tunnel in November 2019. Nevertheless, the railway
infrastructure for freight needs to be upgraded and new projects are expected to be realised for both domestic and international rail. Rail accounted for only 1% of
foreign trade transport in 2018, compared with 65% for sea, 22% by road and 12% by air. Europe is Turkey’s biggest
trade partner with over a million trips by international land transport in 2018. For the Middle East and Africa there were 800,000 trips and 350,000 trips for CIS and Middle Asia. POFM plans to develop Turkey
as a hub for the wider region. Its parent company DP World has a port terminal located at Yarimca, Izmit and POFM has been offering a service to and from Turkey for the past two years. it opened its own office at Istanbul in 2019 and P&O Ferrymasters Turkey was established in November, offering international land and intermodal services between
Turkey and Europe. In 2020 and 2021 POFM will
open new offices in other cities in Turkey including Izmir, Mersin, Ankara, Bursa and Gaziantep. Currently, it offers international
road freight and intermodal services to and from the country using not only the overland route but also short-sea connections and road-rail solutions through the Balkans. It focuses mainly on European traffic, but also offers services to and from the CIS, Ukraine and Russia. POFM uses its own 45’ high
countries, it expects intermodal to increase its share in these lanes. In recent years, it has noted a
widening of the export-import imbalance for some countries and empty transport
from
Europe to Turkey has increased proportionally. Some Turkish transport companies have also switched their focus from Europe to the East, meaning that foreign transport companies gained a higher market share of Turkey’s international transport market. Internet trade is growing
Murat Bog, said: “At present we offer freight and intermodal services between Europe and Turkey, combining land routes, short sea connections and road- rail routes. We plan to build on our schedule of daily departures to and from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to make Turkey our central hub for customers accessing the entire Middle East, Russia and Ukraine.”
Turkey is involved as to date there have been no or very limited trade discussions between the respective governments, he adds: “The threat of duties on certain products is an area that needs to be monitored and this can dampen expectations.
Having noted all that, Turkey made its name
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initially as a quick response market and remains most competitive as well as providing excellent quality, producing small orders with capacity for quick repeats. This is still very much the case and we are sure will be the deciding factor in our clients’ decisions when assessing this market.”
Istanbul office for project forwarder
Project forwarder Martin Bencher has opened an office in
Istanbul, Turkey’s main
commercial and logistics centre. It is run by managing director for Martin Bencher Turkey Enes Yilmaz, who has more than 20 years of experience of project logistics. He said: “This is another
milestone for the Martin Bencher Group. Turkey is a great place for project shipping and Martin Bencher has been active in the Turkish market (for) years. I strongly believe that with our own office in place, it will lead to significant growth in our activities in a very short time.”
Turkey operator looks North
London-based Turkish specialist DGS (Daily Groupage Services) now has the North of England in its sights, says owner, Sela Koydengoctu. The company is looking to open a satellite office in the Manchester area, in addition to its existing headquarters in Belvedere, South London. In 2018, Daily Groupage
cube container fleet but in 2020 will add other equipment such as trailers and swap bodies for its flows to and from Turkey and for transit traffic. It also plans soon to launch new intermodal routes for Turkey traffic. It also intends to offer
integrated logistics in the country including domestic transport, warehousing, value added services, along with project cargo and temperature-controlled transportation. It sees continued growth in
intermodal routes especially via short sea connections to and from Europe. Ro ro operators are offering higher capacity ships and transport companies have introduced new equipment types such as swap bodies, mega containers and rail solutions to their operations. Overall POFM’s intermodal
share was 32% of its total traffic but over 50% for West European flows. Although the ratio was lower for Eastern European
very fast in Turkey and there is strong competition between international and domestic electronic platforms. Logistics and distribution services
took over Action Roadways – a member of The Pallet Network - in July 2018 and renewed its fleet with additional vehicles. It also employed new personnel and doubled sales within six months. “We now do everything in house from collection point to delivery including customs clearance,” explains Koydengoctu. DGS’s Dover office has been in
are
expanding to satisfy these needs but are under heavy pressure to meet customer expectations while keeping costs down. POFM has ambitious plans
for Turkey and the wider region. In the next four years it plans to open up operations in three new CIS countries as part of its ‘Go- East’ strategy. And while organic growth is the priority, POFM is open to collaboration with other operators. In addition to its existing base
in Istanbul, P&O Ferrymasters will develop a comprehensive network across the country by opening offices in Izmir on the Aegean coast, the capital city Ankara, Mersin on the south coast, Bursa in the Marmara region and Gaziantep near the border with Syria. Freight management director
operation for four years now and has been open 24 hours, seven days a week since January 2019.
The company is training people in anticipation of more business in 2021 once Brexit is complete. DGS is half-owned by its Turkish
partner, Ikra, which supplies drivers, trailers and traction from its fleet of 250 or so vehicles. It has depots in Istanbul, Adana and the Black Sea region, along with an extensive office network throughout Turkey. IKRA is currently purchasing 30 more trucks to renew ageing units. DGS operates daily departures
to Turkey including Istanbul, Izmir and Bursa and in fact is operating more departures per week than ever, says Koydengoctu. He explains:
“Our target for
2019 was 15 groupage trailers both directions and we averaged 18 last year. Now, we have set our target at 20 for the first six months of 2020.” Brexit seem if anything to have
had a positive impact for business between Turkey and the UK, he points out. Interestingly, many British importers have moved their production or sourcing out of EU countries such as Romania and Bulgaria to Turkey ahead of Brexit because Turkey, as a non- EU country already has in place a customs procedure with the UK. There are also some
operational issues to Turkey, adds Koydengoctu. DFDS having bought Turkey/Med ferry line UN Ro-Ro changed its schedules, no longer serving Toulon and instead set up a call in Sete near the French/Spanish border , but initially with a limited number of sailings. While this had a negative impact on transit times for most of 2019, this issue is now resolved because Sete is fully operational, says Koydengoctu.
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