Mustafa Dinçer, the Chairman of Board of Directors of Dinçer Lojistik: “We have become one of the most important actors in the logistics sector”

Dinçer Lojistik, which continues its steady growth in the logistics sector and stands out especially with its breakthrough in recent years, has also progressed significantly in e-commerce logistics. In our interview with him, Mustafa Dinçer, the Chairman of Board of Directors of Dinçer Lojistik explained the stages that his companies have taken from the establishment process to this day and their future perspective. Who founded Dinçer Lojistik? Could you summarize the process since its foundation? As Dinçer Lojistik, we have been operating since 2003. By analyzing the needs of the sector, we strategically focused primarily on chemical and hazardous chemical logistics. After specializing in this special area, which requires a great sensitivity and security application, we have added different areas such as construction, plastic and rubber, industrial products, tankers (bulk transports), automotive sub-industry and plant protection products to the sectors we serve. In 2017, we expanded our scope of services by adding e-commerce logistics to these services and became one of the most important actors in the sector in a short time and we achieved very significant success in e-commerce logistics. By prioritizing physical, digital infrastructure and vehicle fleet investments, establishing a huge service network ranging from storage to transportation, raw material supply to final consumer, we started to exist at every point where logistics is needed and supported all our operations with technology infrastructure. We think that digitalization is indispensable in order to make a difference in the sector and to exist in the world of the future. With this perspective, we established our R&D Center in 2018. By developing our own software in our R&D Center, we aim for efficiency and sustainability in logistics processes. As Dinçer Lojistik, we currently manage more than 35 regional and dedicated warehouses on a total area of 350 thousand square meters in 17 strategically determined provinces of Turkey and carry out operations in many modes such as complete, partial, groupage, ADR (chemical product) distribution with our network spread over 81 provinces and 973 districts in the most reliable, effective and responsible way from the point of receipt to the last destination. We also offer services such as dealer logistics and pallet logistics from the field of value-added services by developing solutions suitable for the needs of our customers operating in different sectors. How did Dinçer Lojistik manage the pandemic process? How did the process affect the company positively/negatively? In this context, when you compare the first 6 months of 2020 and the first 6 months of 2021, can you compare your company's performance? With the pandemic, routines and expectations have changed in all sectors. The expectations that digital is at the center made us feel more in our daily lives in the digital age. While talking about digital transformation in the past, ‘digitalization‘ is not only a part of business life but also a part of daily life. It is possible to say that those who cannot adapt digitalization to the way they do business in all sectors are badly affected by this period. In order to make a difference in today's conditions in the sector and to exist in the world of the future, digitalization has become indispensable. With the pandemic, e-commerce has developed and the digital customer base has grown. While consumers' demand for online shopping was around 10 percent before the pandemic, this rate increased to over 25 percent in some sectors after the pandemic. As consumers preferred digital services more, manufacturers and sellers in different sectors felt the need to move their services to the digital platform. Contactless delivery and door-to-door delivery have gained importance. The need for a fast and quality ordering experience has increased. All these important developments have also closely affected the dynamics of the logistics sector. Customers' 24/7 purchase and fast delivery demands led retail companies and online market services to seek solutions to improve their infrastructure. As Dinçer Lojistik, our timely start of technological investments by anticipating this radical change has provided us and our customers with very important advantages.

In line with consumer trends, we accelerated projects to provide logistics services through digital platforms. Our R&D team has focused especially on projects related to process improvement and software.  At the same time, we focused on taking advantage of our strategically located warehouse infrastructure. With our distribution setup specific to customer needs, we offer the same-day delivery service in all sectors we serve and hourly delivery depending on the demands and needs of the sector.

We also improved our working models and organizational processes in this direction and moved our human resources processes to digital. Thanks to our advanced IT infrastructure, all processes can be managed remotely without any problems. In this process, we observe that the logistics sector has grown by almost 20percent. As Dinçer Lojistik, we also grew by approximately 55 percent by completing the first 6 months of 2020 above expectations. In the total of 2020, we achieved a growth above our expectations compared to the previous year with an investment of 60 million TRY. When we look at the first 6 months of 2021, we can talk about a record growth of 80 percent.

As Dinçer Lojistik, we set out with an investment target of 100 million TRY in 2021 and we expect a growth above our expectations this year. We are very pleased that we have achieved significant success in pandemic conditions close to the end of the year. In the following period, we will continue to implement new projects while maintaining our profitability.

Many companies operate in the logistics sector. What kind of services does Dinçer Lojistik provide in the sector where competition is very intense? Dinçer Lojistik is the only company in Turkey with a European Agreement on the International Transport of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR) approved distribution network specific to the chemical sector. We are a pioneer in partial distribution services with ADR with our structure having a command of both operational and legislation and procedure in this field. With our vehicle fleet equipped in accordance with ADR standards, which is the main requirement of hazardous material logistics, our expert driver staff with SRC5 certificate required to be obtained by drivers carrying hazardous materials, our infrastructure with all necessary documents and certificates, door-to-door ADR distribution network and security applications, we differ from the industry players with our quality understanding, which takes the focus of all business processes. Our work on omnichannel and e-commerce technologies had already begun before the pandemic. With the pandemic, we accelerated the technical infrastructure works. We are renewing our distribution network software with dynamic and intelligent systems that include map technologies. We are developing new projects to enrich our product range with technological opportunities in our R&D Center, which consists of a team of 50 experts and is currently working on 24 projects, 2 of which are TUBITAK. As Dinçer Lojistik, we invest in mobility-based applications that make micro-distribution more efficient. We have commissioned FMCG sorter automation systems for Turkey's leading e-commerce companies, which are robotic and not very involved in the sector. We have also included integrated applications and web-based technological structures that will enable our services to be accessed instantly and quickly from anywhere. In particular, we are working to provide full integration to systems that use artificial intelligence to increase efficiency. We have a strong CRM infrastructure that delivers differentiated services, business units and data on a single platform to deliver the solution that best suits customer needs. In this way, we have created a manageable, auditable, integrated and safe service model by providing effective coordination between business units. Thanks to this infrastructure, we also quickly return to the customer demands reflected in the portal instantly and make the necessary improvements very quickly. In addition, we have a team that follows all logistics start-ups in our country and in the world. Together with this team, we follow and analyze the topics such as partnerships, strategies, equipment, projects in detail. We believe that the future of the sector will rise on innovative technological infrastructures and we support start-ups working in this context. We have had two start-up investments this year. The first is Optiyol, which offers route optimization solutions, and the second is Fazla Gıda, a technology-based waste management company. We will continue to work on filling concepts such as operational excellence, efficiency, customer satisfaction optimization with R&D opportunities and making them available for practical use.   When it comes to reverse logistics, how does Dinçer Lojistik manage the process? What benefits does it create within the scope of circular economy? If there is numerical data on the subject, can you share it? Many companies in the world and in our country are developing to adapt their services to the circular economic approach by adopting sustainable business models. A new way of assessing relationships between markets, consumers and natural resources, the circular economic model is defined as a sustainable model that protects resources for as long as possible, creates maximum value during use, and produces materials by recycling at the end of their life. This model, which also creates economic opportunities in the long term, expresses a systemic change that provides added value in the environmental and social field. As Dinçer Lojistik, we continue our activities by adding value to the sector, society, economy and environment in accordance with our mission. In order to support this change, we have invested in Fazla Gıda and continue our operational support.  Fazla Gıda continues its activities with the aim of creating technology-based solutions to reduce food waste in the food supply chain by 50 percent by 2030. Dinçer Lojistik is known to make old pallets and expired food products useful. Can you transfer the details on this subject with numerical data? How is the process managed? As industry players know closely, one of our most important issues is pallet logistics. In this logistics mode, pallets are among the main fixtures in transportation and storage. With the increasing demand, the prices of the pallets increase and the pallets that cannot be collected create an extra financial burden and most importantly harm the environment. At this point, the importance of reverse logistics service that supports the circular economy emerges. With the reverse logistics service, pallets are collected at much lower costs than their prices and made suitable for reuse. If needed, repair service is provided and damaged pallets are prepared for reuse.

As Dinçer Lojistik, we aim to contribute to the circular economy with the pallet logistics service we offer to our customers. With this service, we collected 35 percent of the pallets shipped across Turkey in 2021 and reused 375 thousand pallets. In this way, we prevented the cutting of 15 thousand trees.

With the spread of the application among the sector companies, we anticipate that the pallet logistics process can be managed much more effectively and environmental and sectoral efficiency will increase. How is Dinçer Lojistik managed? (Fleet, human resources, Truck drivers) As Dinçer Lojistik, we serve with a wide network spreading to a total of 350 thousand square meters of storage area, 81 provinces and 973 districts in 35 centers in 17 provinces with nearly 1,500 colleagues throughout our country. Our total number of vehicles is approaching a thousand. We focus on the investments of light commercial vehicles, that is, vehicles used by urban couriers. We have a new investment plan of 200 units in 2021. We are planning to invest in micro vehicles such as scooters in the coming periods. In 2020, we made an investment of 60 million TRY. We have an investment target of 100 million TRY by the end of the year. In 2022, we aim to increase this number to 200 million TRY. Six more storage areas will be opened in Turkey in the last quarter of 2021. One of the most important issues in our agenda before the end of this year is to start operating in England, the Netherlands, Germany and France and to open abroad. Can you describe the near and medium term goals of Dinçer Lojistik? As Dinçer Lojistik, we started the sector with hazardous material logistics. At first, we chose to specialize there by choosing a single field for ourselves. We continued this for 15 years and reached market leadership in packaged chemical transportation in Turkey. Looking at the first four months of 2021, budgets are 5 percent above our target. We anticipate 85 percent growth for 2021. We expect similar growth over the next three years. Short-, medium- and long-term goals have changed in the world. It is all happening so fast, and it's evolving. There is a pointless amount of energy involved in making long-term plans and not keeping up. In the coming years, we will go from chemical logistics toe-commerce logistics, from B2B to B2C. We are successfully moving towards a structure that will suit people's demands for fast delivery. INTERVIEW: Ercan Tosunoğlu/Lojiyol