The Ro-Ro vessel, M/V Toba flying the Singapore flag, owned by the shipping company, W. Wilhelmsen, and represented by the Yakın Doğu Deniz Acenteliği A.Ş.(Near East Shipping Agency), was the first to call at Autoport, which is designed to meet the needs of the Turkish automotive industry. A total of 147 automobiles, 119 pieces of construction equipment and many spare parts were unloaded from this 228-meter long, 54,630-gross-ton vessel coming from Japan.

The incoming vehicles can be tracked in the software system

The entire operation at Autoport is handled by the computerized operating system known as I-Tracks, which is specially designed according to workflow and allows customers immediate access to information regarding the current status of the vehicle. Hakan Genç, Arkas Director of Port Services, touched on how the I-Tracks operation system employed at Autoport allows operations and customer services to be handled rapidly and at high quality standards as well as ensuring that customers can track their freight. He said, “The valuable freight that manufacturers entrust to us is handled during port operations only by trained personnel. We create jobs indirectly for 700 people in this way.”

Hakan Genç said he believes that with Autoport they have made a significant contribution to the logistical infrastructure needs of the automotive sector, which is Turkey's largest export. He stated that they had already initiated efforts to increase capacity because they predicted that available capacity would only meet the short and mid-term demands of this dynamic sector.