News2007
KWE (Russia) Strengthens its Truck Transport Services between Finland and Russia
The First Japanese based Freight Forwarder to Purchase 20 of its own Trucks
2007/11/19
Kintetsu World Express (RUS), Inc. LLC ("KWE Russia") a locally registered company that is part of the Kintetsu World Express, Inc. group ("KWE") announces the purchase of 20 trucks to strengthen long-haul transport operations between Finland and Russia. This new truck fleet has been in active service since November this year.
KWE (Russia) has purchased these vehicles to transport ocean containers off-loaded at Finland's two major ports, being Kotka port and Hamina port, to its customers' logistics centers located throughout Moscow.
As it is one of the major transportation routes for containers imported into Russia, the demand for overland transport between Finland and Moscow has been increasing each year due to robust growth in the Russian economy that has driven both an increase in consumer spending as well as a greater than ever number of Japanese based companies establishing locally registered companies within the country. Indicative of this is the number of shipments handled by KWE (Russia). While in 2006 shipments handled totaled 100, in the first 10 months of this year, from January to October, KWE (Russia) has already handled more than 300 such shipments.
While to date KWE (Russia) has been providing these services through a commission agreement entered into with a local trucking company, in response to problems such as complications in truck dispatch due to a shortage of vehicles, increased transportation costs resulting from increased demand and a decline in service quality caused by the age of the contracted company's trucks, KWE (Russia) decided to purchase its own fleet of trucks.
The merits and features of the transport services provided by these newly purchased trucks are outlined below.
- The purchase of these 20 vehicles has allowed KWE (Russia) to employ 30 full-time drivers. Through independent operation, service quality has been improved in areas such as prompt dispatch and bookings.
- GPS equipment has been installed in all of these newly purchased vehicles allowing customers to trace the progress of their shipments through our website.
- Through our independent transport operations KWE (Russia) is now able to provide a truck transport service at a stable price in a market in which fees continue to skyrocket with annual yearly increases of 150%.
While at present this service is focusing on home appliances, OA and automotive related products for existing clients, in the near future with a further expansion of the number of trucks within our fleet forecast, it is planned to strengthen and expand this service to include transport of completed products from manufacturing hubs in central Europe such as the Czech Republic and Poland.
