Zebras to Apples

Host Bryndis Whitson welcomes port operations developer and land lease logistics expert Arénso Bakker to the show to explore how port infrastructure impacts the supply chain. Bryndis and Arénso met at a Canada and Netherlands Roundtable over discussions on what was happening in both the Netherlands and Canada at the time. Arénso brings a wealth of land, operational, logistical, port, and mediation experience to this interview, shedding light on some of the unseen aspects of ports and how they operate.

Arénso shares a bit about his own career journey before delving into an examination of port site development and all the considerations that must be worked through, including location logistics, jobs, local needs, people for the jobs, and companies willing to use the port. He and Bryndis discuss the potential for double-use warehouse structures to offer greenspace to communities surrounding distribution centres, the intricacies of developing the Panama Canal through an expansion, and the necessity of new ways of thinking about delivery modalities and the circular economy model.

About Arènso Bakker:

Arènso has a background in both logistic engineering (ing. @Maritime Academy Amsterdam) and holds a master's degree in real estate, property- and area development (Msc. @Amsterdam School of Real Estate).

He works internationally on development and landlord operations of ports, logistics-area, economic zones and transformations. Arènso has been involved in many infrastructure investments and land transactions as an interim manager, negotiator or advisor. Further, he is a registered valuer. His knowledge of logistic operations, property-exploitations, landlord operations and land leases and concessions, is a solid ground for complex property issues and valuations.

Besides, being an experienced advisor, interim manager and valuer, Arènso is also acting as a mediator for alternative dispute resolution and judicial expert with a focus on land-related issues, and disputes.

To assure certified standards and ethics Arènso is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. This is the world's leading professional body for qualifications and standards in land, property and construction and is a recognized mark of property professionalism (www.rics.org). He is also registered with the Dutch NRVT (www.nrvt.nl), the international ADR register (www.adr-register.com) and the Dutch LRGD register (www.lrgd.nl).

Contact Bryndis Whitson:

• Website: ZebrasToApples.com
• Instagram: @ZebrasToApples
• LinkedIn

Contact Arènso Bakker:

• Website: NLhave.com
• LinkedIn
  
  

Bryndis Whitson: [00:00:03] Hi, my name is Bryndis Whitson, and you're listening to the Zebras to Apples podcast, the fun and fascinating stories of supply chain logistics. My guest for this episode is with my friend Arénso Bakker. Arénso and I met because we sat next to each other at a Canada / Netherlands roundtable and have been chatting ever since. Arénso lives in the Netherlands and has worked around the world on projects that improve supply chains. This includes the Panama and Suez canals and the port of Rotterdam, which is Europe's largest seaport. What I love about this conversation and chatting with Lorenzo in general, is it showcases the interconnection that we have in the world and how much we can learn from one another as conversations with friends go, we started chatting before we officially began the recording, so immediately we jump in and talk about projects happening in the Netherlands. You never know where you're going to meet new people who become really good friends that you chat with around the world. Join us on a conversation that highlights supply chain logistics and port infrastructure from the Netherlands to Panama, and everywhere in between.

Arènso Bakker: [00:00:40] The mainstream of goods coming into the Netherlands are transferred to Germany, to France or to Belgium. So we are a gate to Europe, and I think Canada is more a gate to itself. So you're receiving a lot of goods. And then of course, so if you, if you look at logistics and supply chain, it's very much about you can have a distribution center for local needs. So people from all the shops and all the food you need, but you can also have, and that's what we have in the Netherlands, it's a regional distribution center and they are there to receive goods, store them, and then distribute them all over Europe. And of course Europe is has about the same size as Canada, maybe even smaller, but so that's a different type of logistics. So it's completely if you receive goods for the last mile to transport into a city or into a few towns, or that you receive goods to transport them to other countries within a region. And the second one is, so receiving goods, transport them to certain regions, that gives the option to add some value to make local, to defer, to change the goods into typical goods for a certain country, and that's in the past that's always the interesting part of regional European distribution centers adding value. What was the most important one? Because then you create jobs. That's the main reason. All the local governments wanted European distribution centers in their municipality.

Bryndis Whitson: [00:02:16] Yeah, exactly.

Arènso Bakker: [00:02:18] Yeah. And a lot of things have changed there recently because for instance, in the Netherlands, we have a huge problem in hunting people working in distribution centers. And then so then you have to ask people to come from abroad, from Poland, from Romania, from Bulgaria into the Netherlands to work in the distribution centers. And then, of course, it's not generating jobs anymore. I mean, there are jobs, but not jobs for people in the Netherlands. And people in Netherlands are not available anymore for working in distribution centers. So then the question is why do you want to have distribution centers if it is not helping your local economy?

Bryndis Whitson: [00:02:56] Oh, yeah.

Arènso Bakker: [00:02:57] Then just have them in Germany or something. But not the Netherlands anymore. Because people find them ugly, they don't like the traffic, and I remember when I was driving around in Canada, I drove behind a truck and on the back of the truck it said, sick of this truck, buy less s**t. That was just the same in Canada as well. People don't like like the traffic jams. Don't like the maybe the ugly buildings around the highways. That's also happening here in the Netherlands. So there's no license to operate anymore to have these huge XXL distribution centers in the Netherlands, if they're not meant for local distribution. That's, I think, the big thing. It's everybody understands that if you have supermarkets, you have the transport needs and you need local distribution centers. But if you talk transnational ones, they don't like it anymore. And then, so for instance, if you look at at the port of Rotterdam, Port of Rotterdam is a huge port area, a lot of containers coming in. And maybe 20 years ago everybody said, yeah, if these containers come in by ship from Asia and you put them on a train and you, and the train goes to Germany, why have this port? Because the...