Having made substantial investment in rail transport for years now, Arkas Logistics plays an active role with its “Contactless Operation” motto in the sector, which sees an increasing demand with the challenges recently emerged in road transport sector due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
With the pandemic reshaping global trade, Arkas Logistics adopts “Contactless Operation” as motto and saves time and costs in rail transport while also prioritising the health of both their personnel and business partners by minimising physical contact.
Rail Transport is the Safest Mode of Transport During the Coronavirus Outbreak
That rail transport requires less physical contact than other modes of transport makes it more favourable than road transport. Rail transport makes a comeback in global trade with queues growing longer due to the measures taken on roads and processes slower. While a 40-TIR load can be transported on a single journey by only two railroad engineers , the same operation takes at least 40 drivers through road transport. This offers a significant advantage by mitigating the risk of spread while enabling trade, therefore transport, to continue without disruption.
Leading the Way in Rail Transport
Arkas, knowing that railroads will contribute to the development of Anatolia, has been investing farsightedly in railways for long years and is ready as ever to offer the best solution to its customers when they need. With 700 railcars in its fleet, Arkas Logistics transports on rail import and export trade containers from Turkey’s leading industrial cities to ports.
Arkas Logistics, who is considered a trailblazer for having started scheduled services from Turkey on Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, continues to prepare for two new road terminals, one in Yenice, Mersin and the other Kartepe, Izmit. Arkas Logistics General Manager Onuc Gocmez commented, “Offering the ability to transport without contact, rail transport has become the most effective mode of transport once again by offering a solution at a time when long queues and disruptions due to checks made on roads due to COVID-19 have started to affect trade. We believe the demand will continue and rail transport will continue to enjoy popularity after the outbreak.”
Support for the National Railways
“Aiming to support Turkish National Railways, we started to transport the loads of industrial businesses in Kutahya from the Kutahya Alayunt station to Evyapport and DP World Yarimca ports in Derince Gulf. Arkas Logistics used to use the railcars of the National Railways on this line but has started to serve with 10 railcars of its own. We have increased the number of our railcars in service”, adds Gocmez. He also mentioned that import and export trade transports from Konya Organised Industrial Zone to the Port of Mersin have been continuing for a long time and added that they included 10 railcars belonging to Arkas Logistics to this service, for which, only the railcars of the National Railways had been used until recently. Gocmez also told that the company has 77 railcars of its own in the city of Kayseri and added, “With this addition, the total number of our railcars across regions will add up to 117.”
Having noted that Arkas Logistics is collaborating with the National Railways and has put its own railcars into service on the BTK line to aid them in the supply problem due to the increasing demand to railways, Gocmez said, “We are planning to put a 15 to 20 railcars into services on this line. The amount of the load we have transported on the BTK line from Turkey to CIS states has exceeded 65,000 tons. Arkas Logistics is carrying half the total tonnage transported on this line. We are planning to serve twice instead of once.
This way, we will make sure that we can answer the increasing demand from Turkish exporters while standing with both businesses and the state in these challenging times.”