Obligation for licence is in force and 36 companies have got their licences until now.
The companies which have wagon fleets or are operating container lines were expected to get licence. Most of them did, and rest is about to get.
The majority of the companies in the list are forwarders, which mainly sells the TCDD’s rail service combined with other services like handling and trucking. There are also new players in the list.
As of today, almost 20 forwarders, which are well known and a member of Railway Transportation Association (DTD), have not got the licence yet. They may be waiting for the developments or their application may be under evaluation. In either case, they seem to have question marks for the future. The forwarders which are not a member of DTD are not included in the above number.
Surely a new era has started for licenced forwarders. They used to sell only the service of TCDD until now, where there was one tariff with fixed rates for everyone. Service was similar, prices were similar. Forwarders were differentiated with having closer relationship with TCDD.
However, in this new era, forwarders have to consider all operators on the requested route. And this operators do not have to stick to one standard tariff. For example, if a train operator has regular loads in one direction and no back load, it may offer charming rates for forwarders on that direction.
Price flexibility seems to create advantages for big forwarders in middle term. Similar to intermodal market, forwarders with huge volumes will get better rates from operators.
Payment term is another topic for competition. TCDD has applied “payment before departure” rule with no exception until now. With new operators, this will surely change. This may seem as an advantage for all forwarders, but train operators may choose forwarders to ensure payments.
Cover Photo: Eksper Tren ©
Categories: Rail Freight
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