Mars Logistics continues its growth in road and rail freight. The company, which made a fleet investment of 65 million Euros in 2023, plans to invest approximately 70 million Euros in its fleet in 2024.
Gökşin Günhan, Member of the Board of Directors Responsible for Mars Logistics Road and Rail Freight, made an assessment of 2023 and said, "We serve nearly 8,000 customers from different sectors throughout the year. In 2023, 44% of our business volume was composed of automotive and sub-industry and 23% of textile sectors. In 2023, Germany, Spain and France were our top three export destinations. We realized 1,200 export trips and 1,100 import trips weekly and passed the 250,000 threshold in the number of annual loads." Mars Logistics, which will complete 2023 with a turnover of 529.5 million euros, targets 15% growth on Euro basis in 2024.
"Number of weekly rail trips will increase in 2024"
Saying that in 2024 they plan to strengthen their railway lines, Günhan underlined that the zero emission target is an important issue on their agenda. Expressing that they are increasing their investments for railway lines every year, Günhan said that trial services were carried out for the Halkalı-Romania line in 2023 and that they will start scheduled services in April. Stating that in 2024, work is underway for another railway line to another country in Central Europe, Günhan said, "Currently, we are organizing a total of 32 weekly trips on the Halkalı-Luxembourg, Halkalı-Czech Republic and Luxembourg-Trieste lines. In 2024, we will increase this number to 40."
Supporting sustainability goals with 100% electric rail freight
Stating that one of the most important projects they will realize in 2024 is 100% electric rail freight, Günhan said, "95% of our lines have electric operation capability. In rail freight, we will invest in electric tow trucks that we can use during the transfer of loads to the rail by road and then to the desired point by transferring to the highway again after the rail. After realizing this investment, we will be able to provide 100% electric rail freight service." He continued his words as follows: "This project, which is one of our most important strategic investment plans for 2024, will support our sustainability goals and help us both reduce our environmental impact and increase our operational efficiency. We are going to purchase long-range electric tow truck. In the first phase, we plan to purchase 50 units in the 2nd quarter of 2024."
"Over 100 thousand trips per year"
Günhan said that including export and import, road and rail in total, they had more than 100.000 trip in 2023, and that they also invested in software to improve and develop processes. "We have software that allows our customers to track their loads, make orders and reports, and access dispatch, instruction and KPI performance reports. The portals we offer to our customers can be customized according to their loads. We have also added a Work Order Application for our drivers to the software we develop every day according to customer demands and requests." Günhan said that in 2024, the document structure will be included in the Work Order Application and that they plan to have all drivers using this application.
Domestic partial distribution network to expand
Stating that 2024 targets include the expansion of the domestic partial distribution network, Günhan said that in 2023, the employment rate in domestic distribution channels increased by 95% and the number of daily trips increased to 1,500. In 2023, Günhan listed the sectors in which he provided the most services in domestic distribution as Textile, White Goods, electronics and FMGC, and said that they foresee that the number of daily trips will increase to 1,750 and employment will increase by 20% in 2024.
"In 2023, we opened 8 new storage and distribution centers for domestic distribution channels in line with the needs of our customers. In 2024, we will open 7 more warehouses." Günhan said the following about the issues they will focus on in domestic distribution in 2024: "In 2024, we especially want to increase our partial distribution volume and the number of provincial distributions. We will focus on white goods, electronics and furniture sectors along with shopping mall distribution and return logistics. In 2024, we will continue to grow and invest."
Work on sustainability continues
In addition to publishing its Sustainability Report in 2023, Mars Logistics, which was entitled to receive ISO 50001 Energy Management System Certificate for Balance, Hadımköy, Tepeören and Tuzla 2 Logistics Centers, certified its renewable energy by making IREC - 2023-2024 renewal and ranked above the average by being at B level in sustainability performance in the SRD assessment conducted by Crif Turkey for Fortune 500, continues its sustainability efforts in every area of the company.
Women have a clear path at Mars
Mars Logistics, which cares about gender equality and advocates equality in all areas of the company, carries out internal and external awareness activities with the Equality Has No Gender project launched in 2021. Mars, which carries out many activities within the scope of the project and aims to break stereotypes in the logistics sector, which is known as a male-dominated sector, also supports women in truck driving. "With the Mars Driver Academy we established in the past years, we accepted people who were interested in the truck driving profession but did not have the necessary training and documents to our academy regardless of men and women. Currently, we have 30 female truck drivers in total, including academy graduates. It is a great pride for us to be a pioneer in the employment of women truck drivers in the sector and to set an example for other companies in this regard," Günhan said, underlining that gender roles will change more in the future and that they will continue to work for this as a company.
Mars Logistics, which currently has a total of 1,236 truck drivers, 30 of whom are women, aims to increase this number to 1,500 by 2024.