Turkish Transportation Market Shrinks by 17% in the First 10 Months
In the first 10 months of this year, production in Turkey decreased by nearly 15% and this was reflected in a 17% contraction in transportation. A loaded truck in Turkey started to travel 460 km in October 2023. The average freight rate increased to around 14 thousand TL. The mileage of a loaded truck last year was around 430 km at the end of 2022. Trucks now prefer to wait for the return load instead of idling. The daily freight fee paid in Turkey hovers around 150 million dollars. Dr. Akın Arslan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tırport, underlines that “e-Commerce = Logistics”, noting that the money circulating in transportation in a day in Turkey is more than the money circulating in e-Commerce.
Kocaeli has the Most Cargo Exiting Kocaeli
Every day in Turkey, nearly 400 thousand trucks/trucks of 16 tons and above pick up cargo from all over the country. About 300,000 of them carry a load over a distance of more than 100 km. According to the 10-month data of TIRPORT Insights, Kocaeli region is one of the top destinations for the most cargo. It is followed by Istanbul, Sakarya, Bursa, Tekirdağ, Adana, Mersin, İzmir, Balıkesir, Ankara, Manisa and Bilecik. On the other hand, the busiest lines at distances under 100 km are Gebze-Istanbul, Bursa-Gemlik, Esenyurt-Ambarlı, Aliağa-İzmir, Gebze-Körfez, Adana-Mersin, Eskişehir-Bozüyük, Kocaeli-Hendek. Moreover, in the aftermath of the February 6 earthquake, transportation volume in the Antakya-Iskenderun region has contracted by more than 40%.
Logistics Companies Increase Self-Owned Truck Investments
Stating that while 90% of the trucks carrying commercial cargo on the roads in 2021 were owned by individuals, this rate decreased to 84% in the 3rd quarter of 2023, Dr. Akın Arslan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tırport, said that logistics companies increased their investments in self-owned trucks due to conjunctural requirements. Evaluating the truck market in Turkey, Dr. Akın Arslan continued his speech as follows “In Turkey, 30% of the FTL freight traffic, which reaches 420 thousand trucks per day, is carried out by logistics companies as contracted transportation, while the remaining 300 thousand transportation takes place entirely on the spot. Approximately 40% of the transports on the spot are trucks directed by warehouses, shipping sites, motor carrier cooperatives and independent brokers used in LTL, partial and cargo transfers. In addition, there are more than 600 motor carrier cooperatives in our country, with over 100,000 individual truckers owning goods. Their only concern is to find a “return load”, as the cost of diesel has now reached almost half of the freight price. Therefore, according to the density map of freight outflow, a truck going to areas with less freight charges more freight per kilometer than to areas with more freight. As a matter of fact, the era of using technology to find return cargo has begun. Tırport, which digitizes the logistics sector end-to-end in real-time and location-based, contributes to truckers finding return loads by providing global services in 14 countries and 8 languages. Another issue is the ever-increasing input costs due to foreign exchange rates and the psychological effects of real inflation, which increases the demand for storage in regions with high production. In just 10 months of 2023, the cost of m2 has increased by over 70% in storage areas over 5 thousand m2 . Over 20 thousand m2 of single piece storage space has become almost impossible to find. In addition, today, conventional warehouses can switch to “full” status when they reach 85-90% occupancy with conventional contract management. However, thanks to DepOrtak, which digitally connects thousands of warehouses, if future demands are managed in real-time and location-based, hundreds of thousands of m2 of additional storage space can be utilized from these empty spaces.”