Emre Eldener, Chairman of the Board of International Transport and Logistics Service Providers (UTİKAD), evaluated the effects of the normalization steps taken on 1 June 2020 on the logistics and transportation sector.
A FAST FALL IS NOT EXPECTED IN AIR CARGO FREIGHT
UTİKAD Chairman of the Board of Directors Emre Eldener stated that they do not expect a rapid decrease in the air cargo freights that are rapidly rising after the outbreak and the extraordinary measures taken.
“The mode of transportation, which was most affected by the closure of the borders and the increase of the borders within the scope of coronavirus measures, was the airline,” said Eldener. Nowadays when normalization steps have been taken, passenger planes have been activated, but the capacity problem has not been solved due to new baggage applications. In addition, we do not expect a decrease in airline transportation costs due to the imbalance of import and export. There is an exit from our country, but when there is no incoming goods, this situation prevents the unit costs of airline transportation to decrease. Extraordinary additional measures were taken during the pandemic process. Flight crews started to work alternately, more than one crew was used for one flight because they could not stay in hotels, while special equipment protective measures were taken for each personnel, these processes also created an additional cost. In the period before the pandemic, companies working with airport enterprises started to work with cash payment method. In this case, it affected the cash flow of companies.Flying countries demanded extra costs within the scope of the measures, freight increased with all of these, but expenses increased with the same rate or even more. Costs also changed when transportation and trade started to be one-way, additional cost items continue. It is not possible for the pandemic to return the same prices before.
CARGO CAPACITIES OF THE PASSENGER AIRCRAFT DECREASED WITH NEW ARRANGEMENTS
Transportation in the old order has decreased significantly, the decrease in flight points will cause the decrease in the cargoes carried under the passenger. With the new regulations, cabin baggage is forbidden to be taken with passengers, our cabin baggage will also occupy a place in the section allocated to the cargo, so the section reserved for private and general cargo it will be reduced and this will result in increased unit costs on more cargo freights.
At the same time, personal protective equipment, masks, disinfection materials were carried with passenger planes during this period, but general and special cargoes could not be placed under passenger planes. If passenger planes are opened to general and special cargoes and trade enters two-way order, then we can talk about the positive change in freight. ” he spoke.
RECOVERY IS EXPECTED IN SEA TRANSPORTATION
Expressing that there was a decrease especially in import shipments with the pandemic period, Eldener evaluated that export shipments will be able to recover for the months of June and after, even though there has been a serious decrease from the automotive sector. He stated that after the coronavirus process, seaway transportation, which has no equipment problems, transports at full capacity, and its call-offs are almost non-existent, expects to complete the pandemic process stably.
EFFECTS OF THE PANDEM IN HIGHWAY TRANSPORT
UTİKAD Chairman Emre Eldener stated that road transportation, which has been dealing with problems such as restrictions during the pandemic period, closing border gates, visa problems, inability of visa offices to work at full capacity and taking the great responsibility of logistics flows, has not yet recovered from the effect of the pandemic.
Eldener said, “Because of the imbalance between import and export, there is no raw material or product / product entering our country although there is an exit from our country, this imbalance causes the freight prices to change instantly. However, the return of the export vehicles to the country emptyly creates extra costs and this situation is difficult. It returns to the sector representatives who spend days as a heavy picture. ” he added.
The epidemic has placed the importance of rail transport
Expressing that they observed the increase in demand for the railway together due to the fact that the physical contact is less compared to other types of transportation and the queues exceeding 50 kilometers from time to time at the highway border gates, Emre Eldener evaluated the developments regarding the railway transportation with the following words:
“Especially in this period, most of the companies, especially Iranian companies, that have been hitting the road transportation have turned to railway transportation. Especially, we can predict that the interest in railway transportations, which are uninterrupted and have less transportation risk compared to other modes of transportation, will increase day by day. Investments in Marmaray Tube Passage also support this view. According to the statements made, it is planned to load 25 thousand containers annually from the industrial centers of Anatolia and transfer them to the European side via Marmaray. The export of finished products, which have become manufactured in our country, to European countries will also be increased by the price advantage provided by rail, which will increase the competitiveness of our exporters. At our meetings, we know that our members closely follow Marmaray freight transit operations and have initiatives, plans and investments in order to carry out their transportation operations through Marmaray without interruption. In addition to these, opening the Marmaray line to freight traffic will bring a new breath to our sector and we can expect that countries will make their investments to this transportation mode. The fact that the railway line is suitable and active for uninterrupted transportation will become attractive for foreign investors once the railway connections of the ports are completed. Indeed, TCDD Central Asian countries
has signed collaborations with railway operators and institutions, and various investments have been started to be made in order to make the BTK Line more efficient and increase its capacity. ”
Emre Eldener, who thinks that a few issues that have not yet been clarified about railway activities should be mentioned in our country, said, “For example; Will dangerous goods be transported on the Marmaray line, will special sized materials we call off-gauge be carried by this method, will this line be active on weekdays and weekends? We had evaluated that the signalization improvements should be made after the campaign in November. On the other hand, the human factor needs to be considered. It should also be evaluated whether freight trains will be an obstacle for Istanbul residents and other users who started to use Marmaray and High Speed Trains intensely. ” he added.
In rail transport, which is mostly in the monopoly of states, all processes are clearly defined and implemented transparently; Underlining that the role of the railway line and train operator, operator and transport business organizers is fairly determined and that all stakeholders should be able to create a structure in which they can carry out their activities in a free competitive environment, Eldener said that the railway transport working environment in the country will also deteriorate aside from the arrival of the foreign investor.
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