New Cold Chain Investment By Ekol
Providing cold chain freight services since 2011, Ekol now bent on rapid expansion of its refrigerated truck fleet through an investment amounting to 3.5 million €
The Turkish logistics firm with the highest level of investment, Ekol, adds yet another investment to its fleet operations. Ekol signed a deal with Enka to add 25 German Schmitz refrigerated trucks to its fleet by September 2014.
Having commenced cold chain freight operations in 2011, and executed successful projects in this segment ever since, Ekol also recently invested in 25 Mercedes Actros trucks for new refrigerated vehicles. Ekol’s investment in these vehicles amounts to a total of 3.5 million €.
The vehicles were manufactured in accordance with the customers’ needs and requirements. Many features of the custom-made fleet of refrigerated trucks produced in Europe for Ekol make it stand out among the competition. Thanks to the clear internal height of 280 cm, these vehicles offer enough place to load 135 cm in height pallets on 2 stages without getting on each other. Furthermore, all temperature controlled vehicles, especially designed to carry sensitive drugs, are equipped with additional sensors so as to carry the relevant load at 2 distinct temperature levels. Thanks to these features of refrigerated trucks, cargoes for 2 distinct projects requiring 2 distinct temperature levels can now be carried simultaneously on a single vehicle. Due to this investment, Ekol will be able to provide its customers a major drug distribution service in accordance with the new standards of the GPD guidelines on which the Ministry of Health is currently working and has been started to be implemented in Europe. Furthermore, the vehicles comprise Turkey’s first mega refrigerated fleet capable of operating at two regimes and compatible with both road and rail transportation. Thus, the trucks are capable of integration with intermodal freight, another area of specialization of Ekol.
With reference to the refrigerated trucks investment, İbrahim Baki, Ekol’s Controlled Transport Manager notes that:
We focused more on cold-chain freight services in line with customer requests, and we accelerated out investments in this field. All of our first stage 25 custom-built refrigerated vehicles suitable for rail transportation exceed our customers’ expectations, and we are pleased to be the key to such innovations.
Kaan Kayral, Schmitz Enka’s Regional Sales Director for Istanbul, in turn said:
First of all, we would like to thank Ekol, one of the revered members of the sector, for their trust in our firm and our products. Double-section mega refrigerated vehicles compliant with ADR (inflammable substances) norms are capable of meeting multiple requirements at a time, and carrying different product groups simultaneously. We wish the new refrigerated vehicles fleet characterized by superior equipments and features would be good for Ekol.
All new refrigerated vehicles are licensed to carry medicine, and will be providing logistics services towards Western Europe, for food, medical, and chemical industries where cold-chain freight is of crucial importance. In addition to the investment in 25 refrigerated vehicles, Ekol also invested a total of 8 million € in 2014 to purchase speedy, trailer, and trucks, continuously expanding its fleet.
Never ceasing its efforts to reinvigorate the Turkish economy through its investments, Ekol closely follows and continues its investments concerning the developments in the chemical industry, pharmaceutical investments of multinational firms, ever-rising pace of mergers and acquisitions, and rapid growth of agro-businesses.
