The Turkish goods travel up to 7.000 km in each round-trip land transportation during their export journey to the European counties. Ekol Logistics has developed an effective and environmentalist solution for this problem and reduced the land transportation of average 7.000 km to 2.000 with the “Intermodal” (block train) practice since 2008. With an increase of 3.600% only in 3 years, total 500 block train journeys will be carried out annually. This practice means that the Turkish goods will not travel around the world twice for entering the European market anymore and that 1.600 liters of fuel saving will be ensured per vehicle in each journey.

The European Union is working for shifting the free circulation of the goods in the Continental Europe within the scope of the Customs Union to railroad for long years. The different practices of the countries, however, have not become harmonious with each other yet. As a result of this, the Turkish goods, which need to travel across Europe, have both incurred weakening of competitive power due to high costs and caused environmental pollution during transportation.

Ekol Logistics have used Intermodal system, one of the most important tools of green logistics sensitive to environment, and reduced the land transportation distance of approximately 7.000 km to 2.000 km for the Turkish goods. As an active member of the CREAM (Customer-driven Rail-freight services on an European mega-corridor based on Advanced business and operating Models) Consortium, founded by the European Commission 6^th Frame Program, Ekol Logistics works on projects for carrying out transportation by railroad with EU norms and also has started to apply a faster, more environmentalist model bypassing the Eastern European route by sea, due to the delays in border passes.

With block train practice, Ekol Logistics ships the Turkish goods to Trieste Port of Italy within 3 days by loading them to RoRo vessels from İstanbul, İzmir and Mersin ports with semi-trailers without any need for tow trucks. After Trieste, the semi-trailers loaded to the trains from the port on the arrival date arrive to Worms Terminal of Germany earlier than one day. The semi-trailers are unloaded from the train, attached to the tow trucks with German license plate and transported to Germany, Benelux countries, France, UK, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland and Spain.

With “block train” practice, Ekol Logistics is taking a significant step against greenhouse effect; the reason of not using tow trucks on the main route is to cause less pollutant emission, prevent noise pollution, ensure energy saving and reduce the trace of CO₂. 5.000 km less road transportation is provided per semi-trailer in each return trip, so 1600 l fuel, 5520 kg CO₂, 25.86 kg Nox, 3.98 kg NMHC and 0.70 kg particle saving is ensured.

When Ekol has implemented block train practice in 2008, there were 18 journeys with 32 semi-trailers and this amount has increased to 92 journeys in 2009 and 210 journeys in 2010. The number of journeys planned for the year 2011 is 500… If the target for 500 journeys is achieved with an annual increase of approximately 3.600 times, then the roads will be used 80.000.000 km less. This means two tours around the world. 500 journeys provide a saving of 1.333.573.102 mega joule energy, 88.320 tons of CO₂, 25.600.000 l fuel, 63.550 kg HC and 413.784 kg Nox.

WHAT IS CREAM CONSORTIUM?

Ekol Logistics continues to develop projects as an active member of CREAM (Customer-driven Rail-freight services on an European mega-corridor based on Advanced business and operating Models) Consortium, founded by the European Commission 6th Frame Program. CREAM is a research and development project funded by the European Commission and its aim is described as to develop the Railroad and Intermodal transportation for the transportation corridors between Europe and Turkey more. With the advantages it provides, the block train practice is qualified for being one of the practices within the project and the Worms – Trieste block train, including the innovative business models of Ekol, and the freight flow and transportation concept realized are found to be appropriate to the aim of the project and decided to be supported.