Cihan Veziroğlu, Vice Chairman Of S.S. International Kaynaşli Motor Carriers Cooperative: ''Our Single Problem Is Not To Come Together As Cooperatives''

"REFUGEES ARE OUR ONLY TROUBLE IN EUROPE"

Veziroğlu said that; “This is the yeast of all 12-13 companies in Kaynaşlı; all gone because of this. We can come together but we cannot because of competition. If we cannot come together, this sector will gone away.”

Indicating that they are the first cooperative in Turkey which has the C2 certificate which is required to do international transportation, Vice Chairman of the Cooperative, Veziroğlu gave information to us by saying that; “Our cooperative was founded in 1972. Here we have quarries, pipe factory. We had domestic work before. Our cooperative has developed and grown over time. We received our C2 Certificate in order to be able to carry out C2 international transportation. The first cooperative with C2 Certificate in Turkey. We are currently transporting abroad to Europe, Asia and the Far East. We are working on a wide network. We transport to Afghanistan, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Greece, Bulgaria and all of Europe. We go everywhere except China. We have 120 active members and 160 vehicles. 90 percent of these vehicles are trucks. There are 20 small minibuses, and we just got them. "

“There Is Such An Attitude Especially Towards Turkish Vehicles”

Veziroğlu, who expressed the problems they had abroad, said that; “Our problems abroad differ in Europe and Asia. We used to go to Russia before; there was no visa problem in Russia, now it applies visa. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan's roads are very bad. Some countries apply visa to us. We have difficulties in obtaining a Schengen visa on the European route. While some countries can easily give visas, some do not. When we experience an incident abroad, we are experiencing great difficulties because we cannot reach the consulate. In such cases, we are in contact with UND. In addition, the representative offices abroad also take steps in this direction. This is the way we solve our problems. There is not much trouble on the Asian side but on the European side, we have a lot of trouble with refugees. In other words, our only trouble in Europe is refugees. Refugees get in the vehicles on the way from Serbia to Europe. For this reason, we paid 4.600 or 2.500 euros of penalties for each vehicle. The driver does not realize that refugees get into the vehicle because he sleeps at night. They cut the rope from the upside of the vehicle and open it and get in. There may be a Polish vehicle besides us; the police sends that vehicle when the refugees are found in that vehicle; but we are subjected to penalties and these penalties are very high. There is such an attitude especially towards Turkish vehicles. Therefore, we had a big problem. We delviered the necessary complaints. Our Minister of Trade Ruhsar Pekcan held a meeting with the drivers at the border gate. There was some improvement in this way.

“Our Vehicles Have Vehicle Tracking System”
 

Stating that their vehicles have a Vehicle Tracking System and that they track vehicles in this way, Veziroğlu said that; “All vehicle owners are partners here. In these types of cooperatives, coordination gets a little difficult and we cannot manage like a company. For this reason, we are trying to minimize the situation. For example, we installed Vehicle Tracking System in our vehicles so that our vehicle can go and come more quickly. We are planning to have all vehicles provided with these systems by the end of this year; we also made an agreement with a company. This business turned into competition; whoever goes fast gets the job. We are not like companies; the company may say to the driver “go” or “do not go”, but we cannot say this to the truck owner. For example, big companies share the penalty to 50 vehicles even if there are big penalties because they have 100 vehicles, which is turned to a small amount. This situation creates a problem for us as they own vehicles. Our aim is to provide fast service. The owner of the vehicle will go, will deliver the cargo to its place in a right condition and will turn back as soon as possible. Our only advantage is that the members are owners. Since this is a cooperative, we have given people confidence for 40 years, that's why they choose us.

"It is the Fuel That Breaks Our Back”

Evaluating the resting and working times in domestic transportation, Veziroğlu makes the following statements in his speech by saying that; “There is no problem with our vehicles going to Europe even here; but it happens with our vehicles operating in the country. Our 50 vehicles work domestically. There is a problem because the resting periods are short. They drive a maximum of 9 hours in 24 hours, that is, the driver will go for 4 and a half hours and rest for 45 minutes. This does not suit them, as the customer wants the load to go immediately. If there were two drivers, the cost would increase; prices are already low. If I am a government official; first I lower the tax on fuel, because it is the fuel that breaks our back. Prices in our country are not seen anywhere in the world today. Europe has come to the threshold of 1 euro now, these figures are high in our country. Costs of tires, insurance, fuel and maintenance are high. We used to have three quarters of what we earn from where we used to go, now we have just one quarter.

"Foreign Transporters Are The Trouble For Us"

Complaining about foreign companies and defining his ideas that this leads to unfair competition, Veziroğlu said that; “Foreign transporters are the trouble for us. Competing companies exist both in Asia and Europe. For example, let's go to Bursa garage and the employer requests a vehicle to Poland. My vehicle cannot go for that price; but he finds 30 vehicles at that price and loads his freight. Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia are all like this.

"We Cannot Get Together Due to Competition"

Emphasizing that the cooperatives cannot come together due to competition, Veziroğlu states the following by saying that; “Domestic is not that important for us because currently 100 of our vehicles are abroad. 60 of them are on the way to the European side, 40 of them are on the way to Turkey. We have 25-30 friends in Turkey operating in the country, but this cooperative was founded in 1972 and has never grabbed the work of someone else. Everyone here is from the core, from being a driver. This is the yeast of all 12-13 companies in Kaynasli, they all went from here. We can come together but we cannot come together because of competition. Even if we cannot get together, this sector will gone away. I am a primary school graduate, but I have been doing this profession since elementary school. Our only problem, as cooperatives, is that we cannot come together.

Stating that they have ideas to establish a logistics base on the European side, Veziroğlu said that; “We are also working on establishing a large logistics base on the European Side. We want to buy a garage, build sub-warehouses and do such a work there. We are currently doing a site research. "