KLG Europe

Turkey’s economy ranks 18th in the world in size. With the exception of the past year, the economy has grown strongly in the last decade. Istanbul, located on the border of Europe and Asia, is an important economic and logistical link in this. The city on the Bosphorus alone has approximately 15 million inhabitants. It is therefore not surprising that a lot of trade is conducted to and from this region. The country’s main industry is textiles, but food, white goods and automotive also have a large share of exports. Conversely, many chemicals and consumer goods, such as electronics and food, are imported from the west. Partly for this reason, KLG Europe has been offering transport solutions to and from Turkey for some time. Initially via partners, where everything was transported by road. In 2010 we were given the opportunity to open our own branch in Turkey. From that moment on, we have expressed the vision to offer as much intermodal as possible. At the time, investments were also made for this in-house equipment, with the aim of carrying out everything in-house. And depend as little as possible on third parties. In 2014 we transferred our activities to our current partner: Ekol Logistics. This was very intermodally oriented from the start. This new setup gave us an opportunity to boost our volumes to and from Turkey. We can also piggyback on other intermodal lines of this partner in this way. Now both parties ensure optimal mission volumes to balance the flow both east and westbound.

In our route we use the intermodal rail connection between Köln and Trieste, after which the journey continues via the RoRo ferry to Istanbul. The choice via Trieste is very conscious. This port is an important hub in the network for us. You can serve not only Turkey from this port, but also Greece. At the same time, Trieste is a gateway for the Balkans. We can therefore easily take cargo from the Benelux to one of the Balkan countries or Greece on the train, resulting in a good coverage and a high frequency. This makes us less vulnerable than a direct connection across the mainland. The reason for choosing intermodal transport is the price-scale advantage that can be achieved and the increasing driver shortage. A train is the equivalent of approximately 34 trailers, but you do not need 34 drivers on this route. This pays off, especially at longer distances. Additional advantages are the bypass of the driving bans and the possibility to load and unload trailers on demand. However, we still find a lot of fear among shippers and fellow service providers that things will go wrong when transporting by rail. You are less able to make adjustments and you are dependent on the performance of other chain partners, such as the rail operator and terminal operator. At the same time, the impact of a delay is greater. For that reason, too many trailers still go by road and there is still plenty of potential for the track in that respect. Moreover, we see a problem in road transport in the long term. How can you explain a driver’s deficit even longer, while traffic jams on the road increase simultaneously and the parking spaces are already full at 3:00 PM? Sooner or later the sector will have to deal with this and then intermodal transport at longer distances will be a sustainable and cheaper solution. The extra investment in a craneable trailer is only small compared to a standard trailer. That cannot be the problem to realize a modal shift. So the problem is much more in the mental shift. Promotional work therefore remains necessary for the time being!