Kerem İmrak, Chairman of the Board of Directors of İmsan Group and Member of the Board of UND:

“WE NEED TO EDUCATE DRIVER”

 “Under the umbrella of UND, our top priority agenda item, together with our Chairman, Mr. Çetin Nuhoğlu, and our team, is the visa problem in Europe. In order to solve the visa problem we have been experiencing for the last two years, a team was formed within UND in line with the work instructions given by Mr. Nuhoğlu. Our transporters make their applications every month through the visa company with which we have made a new agreement, and we create a feasibility report on this subject at our monthly board meetings.”

“The Visa Problem Reduces Our Competitive Strength”

“The visa problem that has been given to us has put our industry in a serious competitive situation, this is an undeniable fact. The logistics sector has a fast, young and dynamic structure. In addition, our industry consists of new and powerful fleets. On the other hand, I must say that the sector has lost its competitive power due to the problems experienced recently. However, according to the latest statistics, improvements have started now. Our initiatives are producing promising results. We can see from our reports that there will be serious improvements in the coming period. Our transporter is very resilient and has the power to overcome anything. They are trying to cut the speed of the Turkish transporter with pass documents and quotas. We bear these losses and difficulties, but UND also voices the problems of the industry on every platform in order to pave the way.”

“Our Transporters Working in the Asian Region are in Difficult Situation”

“We solved our problems with Hungary last month. We had a Romania visa problem. After the meeting of UND with our Ministry on this issue, our first five thousand visas were given again last month. Our transporters working in the Asian region are in a very difficult situation. Recently, we have been experiencing a problem with transit documents in Kazakhstan as well. In this regard, our hard work and Ministry initiatives continue. A delegation of ours went to Turkmenistan in the past days, various problems are created during the transition, the doors are closed.”

“Items Related to Logistics Are Handled Very Sensitively”

“UND and our Ministry are seriously working on all these problems and more. Especially as a result of the meetings we held, we saw that the issues related to logistics are handled very sensitively and everyone is very knowledgeable about this issue. However, of course, all these are resolved as a result of bilateral negotiations between countries. We hope that we will receive the reward of all these efforts with good news very soon.”

“We Need to Train Drivers”

“After reducing the age limit from 65 to 69 years in SRC 3s, we saw that in the last month, our 69-year-old drivers of about a thousand people made job applications. And is that enough for us? No. Is it possible for us to experience the driver crisis in Europe? Yeah. That is to say, our vehicle fleet is increasing day by day, purchases are made with serious orders. The number of trained drivers does not progress in direct proportion to the vehicles purchased. Although our friends from the younger generation start to prefer the profession of driving, this is not enough. In this direction, as UND, we have been working for years; According to the information we received from our Ministry, we were informed that there will be studies on driver training. We need to train drivers for our new generation vehicles. The sector that brings the most foreign exchange to our country after tourism in Turkey is the logistics sector. We all need to perceive and know this value. For us to progress further, it is a condition for us to train drivers. We always need to be supplied.”

“Our goal: Keeping Up With Digitization”

“We have educational institutions in the cities of Istanbul and Mersin under UND. Various trainings such as SRC 3, ADR, senior/middle level management certificate are given in these institutions. We are moving forward with a very different vision in the field of education, especially under the leadership of value given by Mr. Nuhoğlu to education. Our main goal is to create visionary perspectives in our companies in accordance with the requirements of the age and to ensure that our industry meets all the requirements on the way to digitalization. Young UND Academy continues on its way in this direction with the serious feedback it receives every day, with its strong teaching staff and trainings. Currently, we have friends who graduated from Young UND on our board of directors. These efforts are the struggle of future generations to receive education from us and to bring our young representatives in the sector into existence with different visions in businesses.”