IAPH has over 150 of the world’s leading ports as members, widely regarded as a benchmark for governance, safety, and environmental challenges in the maritime sector.

Industry players say the IAPH move is partly designed to reassure terminal lease bidders and ESG-conscious lenders that Santos will universally recognise standards for emission, safety, and transparency, easing financing and permitting for the planned cluster of new terminals.

Through IAPH, Santos Port Authority gains direct entry to tools such as the Environmental Ship Index (ESI) and the World Ports Sustainability Programme (WPSP), which function as global knowledge platforms for green port operations and emissions‑reduction strategies.

The authority says this alignment will help Santos refine its carbon‑reduction roadmap, including investments in alternative fuels, energy‑efficient handling equipment, and cleaner vessel‑incentive schemes.

Santos has around 120 million tons of cargo per year and roughly 30-35% of its total foreign trade. The Santos Port Authority also signals plans for electrified quay cranes and shore power infrastructure for large vessels, which it intends to calibrate using ESI and WPSP benchmarks.

Strategically, the move comes as Santos is expanding its land footprint by more than 50%, from 9.3 km² to 14.5 km², with plans to tender up to 30 new terminals and an export‑processing zone (ZPE) starting in 2027. The Santos Port Authority leadership has framed the IAPH membership as a way to benchmark that growth against leading global ports and attract private‑sector operators with modern, compliant, and ESG‑aligned infrastructure.

Industry analysts interpret Santos’ IAPH accession as a step toward positioning the port as a regional model for sustainable port‑city development, particularly as Latin American trade corridors grow in importance for global exporters and shippers.

Analysts suggest that Santos will become Latin America’s reference port for sustainable expansion at a time when European and North American shippers are increasingly demanding validated ESG performance from gateway terminals.

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As of March 11, three commercial container vessels were struck by missiles or drones in Gulf waters within days of each other. These incidents included a Thai-flagged vessel that was hit 11 nautical miles north of Oman, a Japanese vessel that struck off the coast of the UAE, and a third vessel targeted northwest of Dubai. And they weren’t near misses or accidents; most were hit directly. This has changed how logistics works in the region.

The industry has responded quickly, though cargo owners have been disoriented. Major container ship operators terminated their contracts, offloaded their legal obligations, and dropped containers at the nearest safe port. However, “the nearest available port” is a loosely applied concept. Because operators make unilateral decisions about where goods land, there is little transparency or logic behind their choices. Cargo owners are now finding their shipments stranded in ports they never contracted for.

Ports in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE have suspended operations entirely, while others are working with significant delays. Although the global port network remains open, it is currently absorbing a surge of redirected traffic that has led to congestion and vessel bunching at major hubs like Singapore and Rotterdam. This phenomenon, where ships must queue because ports cannot process arrivals fast enough, has created a prominent side effect characterised by rising labour costs, lower unloading speeds, and significant strains on storage capacity.

Cargo owners will bear the brunt of this catastrophe in the coming days. Goods are sitting exposed at ports without adequate storage infrastructure and are vulnerable to loss and damage.

Recovering these losses depends on the contracts that were signed between shippers and vessel owners, though they vary from company to company and contract to contract. Delay-related losses are usually excluded under the standard Institute Cargo Clauses (A), meaning the cargo policy simply will not pay out.

In addition to cargo owners, ports and terminals face significant hardships as congestion-related incidents become increasingly common and insurance coverage remains dependent on regional policies.

Consequently, businesses moving goods through Gulf waters must review their contracts, stress test their insurance coverage, and prepare for persistent delays and rerouting for the duration of the conflict.

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Trukker provides a mobile app to deliver instant quotes to customers, apart from facilitating real-time consignment tracking, and on-time deliveries.

“The best possible transport allocation. Instant pricing. Live track-and-trace. Real-time analytics. Find everything you need to streamline your freight operations on MENA’s largest digital freight forwarder platform for your on-road logistics. Each day, thousands of shippers and carriers optimize and cut costs, increase loads, reduce empty miles, and enjoy improved income on the TruKKer platform,” the venture stated further.

Decoding Trukker’s Operational Ecosystem

Trukker is attempting to stitch together a digital layer of control and transparency in the logistics industry through data-led innovations.

Trukker’s intelligent freight network, which as of October 2023, is serving over 700 clients in more than 10 nations, is smoothening out the frictions between demand and supply, apart from eliminating any load-related uncertainty.

Nearly 6000 drivers are currently earning 75% of their monthly incomes through Trukker’s platform.

“Our cloud-based freight solutions offer end-to-end coverage and a full-service portfolio for shippers, carriers, and businesses alike. That’s how we’re introducing shared efficiencies for all the involved parties in a supply chain. Behind the scenes, we cross-reference and analyze millions of data points across touchpoints and interactions. Our ever-growing data pool and AI-driven platform ensure continual process optimization with each transportation cycle for all our network users. At TruKKer, it’s all about delivering the future of freight now,” the venture added further.

Established in 2016, the start-up immediately captured MENA’s business landscape by launching ‘UAE Cross Border’ in 2018, followed by its branch openings in Saudi Arabia and Egypt in 2019. In 2021, Trukker acquired Pakistan-based digital freight booking platform TruckSher. In the same year, Trukker made its market debut in Turkey, Oman and Bahrain. A year later, Trukker’s branches were opened in Poland and Kazakhstan too.

Through the solution called ‘Move My Home’, the start-up helps Emirati families during their relocation by providing them live location tracking and status updates on the movement of latters’ assets. Trukker’s seasoned team of moving professionals ensure zero damage to these assets while relocating them to new homes.

“Our relocation experts offer end-to-end care for your goods throughout the journey and beyond while you enjoy an effortless moving experience. These skilled professionals can dismantle and rearrange your decor, fix necessary circuits, set up devices, and do paint jobs. You don’t need to do anything,” the venture remarked.

During house relocation, a family can request a quote from TruKKer, following which the venture’s sales representatives will contact the customer.

When it comes to moving the family’s belongings to the new property, Trukker takes a day to move the contents of a studio/one-bedroom apartment. For bigger homes, the process takes two or three days. The customer needs to pay 50% of the bill amount in advance and the rest on the day of the move.

Trukker helps businesses to find logistical and freight support in the MENA region without the involvement of middlemen and freight brokers.

By December 2022, Trukker established its presence in the West Asia. The UAE and Saudi Arabia markets are currently contributing almost 40% to the company’s revenue flow.

Trukker has three main digital solutions, ‘TruKKer Pulse’ for B2B clients, ‘TruKKer Load Board’ for truck service providers, and ‘TruKKer Driver App’.

‘TruKKer Pulse’, apart from helping businesses to ship commercial cargo, also caters to the needs of retail customers looking for movers and packers services.

TruKKer’s Load Board Interface provides truck owners and transportation companies with an overview of the marketplace, clients available for fleet owners to bid on, and analytics on their operational efficiency.

Through the venture’s solutions, the drivers and fleet managers in the MENA region can also upload relevant documents and manage their payments, stay connected with each other, store invoices, submit proof of delivery and manage warehouses.

Trukker In News

Talking about Trukker’s recent achievements, the venture earned the fourth rank in Forbes Middle East’s list called ‘MENA’s Top 50 Most-Funded Start-ups 2022’.

Through its presence in Poland and Kazakhstan, Trukker will now be eyeing to extend its reach into the European markets in the coming days.

“Poland and Kazakhstan are strategically located along the Belt and Road route at the crossroads of Eurasia. Poland’s convenient transportation, low freight costs, and high logistics performance index, which ranks 28th globally, provide favourable conditions for TruKKer to access European supply,” remarked Gaurav Biswas, while interacting with the Gulf News in November 2022.

As of October 2023, Trukker is being backed by large institutional investors including Mubadala, STV, ADQ, and IFC. The start-up closed a USD 100 million series C in September 2022 led by Investcorp, a large private equity firm with USD 40 billion assets under management.

The post Start-up of the Week: Meet Trukker, the Uber of MENA’s logistics industries appeared first on International Finance.

Simon Lloyd, Head of Logistics and Industrial at Cushman & Wakefield in the Midlands, told the media, “The market trends accelerated by the pandemic continued to drive demand during Q3, and the Midlands region saw some 45% of the UK’s total take up, with both the East and West Midlands performing well. Robust take-up is fast eroding existing supply, with some regions and sub-markets now facing a shortage of suitable accommodation across certain size bands. Availability levels across the Midlands have decreased by over 15 percent, and speculative development has slowed, which means this imbalance could persist. There are signs that prime rent growth could return as a result, particularly for mid-box units.”

But the downside for the industry is that forwarders and shippers for businesses in the country faced another challenge when it was realised that the Smart Freight System will not be ready to meet the deadline on January 1, media reports said. It seems that businesses are heavily reliant on the system to ensure smooth flow of goods and services to the EU. It is reported that the UK government needs to fully understand the existing complexities within the logistics industry and the necessary coordination to use the Smart Freight System.

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