PHOTO
The Middle East and North Africa’s (Mena) largest land freight platform TruKKer has announced its expansion in Poland and Kazakhstan to build momentum and further expand the thriving haulage operations from Turkey to EU and CIS nations.
“Poland and Kazakhstan are strategically located along the Belt and Road route at the crossroads of Eurasia. Poland's convenient transportation, low freight costs, and high logistics performance index, which ranks 28th globally, provide favorable conditions for TruKKer to access European supply. And Kazakhstan acts as the circulatory system and regional hub of the surrounding economies - powered by its trade arteries spread across Eastern, Western Europe, and Central Asia,” says Gaurav Biswas, Founder & CEO of TruKKer.
Saudi-based TruKKer is playing a leading role in digitising Mena's goods flow on the major trade lanes in the Mena region and gained strong traction in Turkey focusing on long-haul regional routes. The network originated in the GCC and is backed by large institutional investors including Mubadala, STV, ADQ, and IFC. TruKKer closed a $100 million series C in September 2022 led by Investcorp, a large private equity firm with $40 billion assets under management.
Scaling operations
The network’s Turkey operations are scaling substantially toward servicing cargo lanes to Kazakhstan and Poland, substantiating its launch strategy. Hakan Arikan, Regional Director, CIS & Eastern Europe, TruKKer, says: “Our stations in Poland and Kazakhstan will create additional infrastructure to our strong presence in Turkey. This will help us to service our clients on both sides with additional reliability and efficiency.”
"We're already operating active haulages in the Mena markets. The opportunity in EU and CIS lanes are exciting and we plan to partner with digital marketplaces and also invest in the region while the EU is facing certain economic challenges. We plan to build a strong business during a downturn," adds Pradeep M, Co-Founder & CTO.
The network focuses on digitising an extremely fragmented trucking supply contracted to cargo owners via brokers, online loadboards, and freight forwarders but often suffers from lower utilisation and working capital challenges.
Full stack operator
TruKKer is a full stack logitech operator that facilitates transactions with all stakeholders including other brokers and marketplaces with the ability to sign long-term contracts with cargo owners with immediate payments to asset owners and forwarders.
The network relies on digital document compliance and integration with other digital participants. The utilisation focus is on lane densities to create a higher spectrum of control over the supply participants and make hauling more responsive.
Biswas explains: "For us, stepping into new markets is preceded by two activities. One is region-specific solution customisations, and the next is intense market research focussed on lanes.” TruKKer has a strong reputation for its new market launch playbook and processes based on scaling into ten countries with long haul FTL operations across custom-controlled borders.
The digital freight network has achieved significant ESG milestones. It has achieved as high as a 40% increase in reverse loads on its matured lanes in GCC. The group is also investing in improving the working conditions of long-haul drivers along with financial inclusion in certain markets.
Copyright 2022 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).