The Second Century and the Strategic Transformation of Logistics

We are going through times with the most significant changes in history in global trade and the logistics sector has been in an intense transformation process for a while.  Especially the pandemic changed the business manners in the logistics sector. At this point, market demands began to change.  This change caused the generally accepted concept of the seven truths in the logistics world to lose its currency.   Now, there are new lines, such as speed, capacity, stock accuracy, agility, and flexibility.  In this sense, the most basic expectation on the consumer side is speed.  The expectation on the part of the producer or seller is efficiency. The teams that will meet the expectations of both sides are logistics teams.   Therefore, it is no longer possible to manage logistics with old habits.  Now, logistics must be a profit center, not an expense center. At this point, all logistics operations should progress in a way that feeds each other, which is also the current demand.   Thus, it is a process that requires tremendous coordination.  Therefore, it is now imperative to properly manage all these channels under one roof.   If all these channels are not managed in a centralized manner and logistics processes are managed with fragmented structures based on the old habits, the losses of cost, time, efficiency, and therefore sales and customer dissatisfaction will cause companies to fall behind in competition and profitability.  In today's business life, it is almost impossible for companies that fail to properly manage their logistics processes to grow or even survive.  We go through a process in which we can see the effects of this situation not only on companies but also on our country.

For strong foreign trade growth, we face issues such as designing logistics processes in accordance with foreign trade goals and expectations, developing logistics opportunities and capabilities abroad, and eliminating deficiencies in the field of trained human resources. If we want our country, which has entered its second century, to be better in the coming period than it is today, it is not enough to produce, we also need to improve the opportunities and capabilities of delivering the produced goods to the right markets through the right logistics processes. To this end, starting by giving up seeing logistics as an expense center is necessary.  When you look at the major economies in the world, you will see that the basic similarities of these countries include having strong logistical infrastructure and they renovate their respective infrastructure in accordance with today's conditions. At this point, it is undeniable that our country needs stronger logistics infrastructure in the second century.

Spreading exports to the base

In today's world, all businesses and entrepreneurs, from the smallest to the largest, desire to improve their share in the export market. The export awareness in our country gradually increases with each passing day. In this process, the performance to be shown in the e-export market will be one of the main achievements to make our country leap forward. E-export will play an important role in spreading exports to the base. Therefore, the most important issue at this point is how to manage the logistics processes of the business.

The actions to be taken first in this regard can be grouped under three headings.

• By taking advantage of its physical location, we have to transform our country into an actual logistics center.  However, this is not enough. We have to develop our logistics opportunities and capabilities abroad in accordance with the needs of our exporters.
• In particular, we should produce solutions for the return process, which is the biggest problem of e-export, and we should design infrastructure to re-offer returned products for sale on-site in the logistics centers to be opened abroad without taking the same in our country.
• We should quickly eliminate all obstacles to e-export in terms of legislation and remove the obstacles to this group, which we define as micro-exporters in this regard, but which we need to recognize as exporters at the end of the day.

Digital challenge of logistics

Another issue that will be on our agenda in the coming period will be the digital transformation process of logistics.  With the pandemic, new business manners entered our lives, and a kind of digital evolution occurred in the sector. During this process, e-commerce, automation, and reduced physical contact came to the fore. Ports have become autonomous, customs processes have been improved, modernization of infrastructure has been achieved, and customs declarations are now allowed to be submitted in the digital environment. Implications of these practices and similar practices will be experienced more in the next hundred years. Both the emerging regulations worldwide and the wars to stand out in competition will increase the impact of technology on the logistics sector day by day. Therefore, we should rapidly improve logistics interaction with technology, increase the number of R&D centers that limited enterprises own in our sector, and improve our relations with universities.

If we look at Türkiye in terms of the current conditions in the world, Türkiye is naturally in a logistics top position due to its physical location. As said for years, our country acts as a bridge between Europe and Asia. However, it is debatable whether we have been able to use this advantage correctly so far. At this point, in addition to some responsibilities that need to be imposed on the public, there are also responsibilities that fall on the private sector.  Logistics in our country has been seen as international transport for many years, and managed with this understanding. However, the market had utterly different demands and expectations. We need to build the proper supply chain process to create globally recognized brands.  When you look at the examples in the world, you can see that this is the case. The binding component of this process is the robustness of your logistics infrastructure. While some of the steps taken today give us hope to bring our country to the level it desires in the second century, we should not forget that we have to accelerate our steps.

We must take precautions against international regulations

In recent years, international regulations that will primarily affect the logistics sector have begun to be announced. One is “Fit for 55” announced by the European Commission. With this package, carbon border adjustment, increasing the use of renewable energy and introducing low-emission modes of transportation and the infrastructure to support them stand out. Another legislative regulation that provides for additional tax obligations to be imposed on exports to the European Union within the scope of the package was the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Our country should take measures against such regulations published in the European territory, which is our largest export market, and clarify our actions in this sense because, considering the current course of the world, it is inevitable that we will face many similar regulations in the next hundred years.

I would like to finish by emphasizing once again that we need to change our perspective on logistics as a country. I believe that the importance of logistics in every field and in every environment is understood more clearly during the pandemic process, for if there are logistics, there is life.