Noatum Logistics doubles GCC truck fleet past 850 vehicles

Noatum Logistics now runs more than 850 trucks across the Middle East and GCC — double its fleet of just six months ago. The new vehicles arrived in batches over that period and are already working in regional operations, with every unit meeting Euro 5 emissions standards.

The operator, the logistics arm of Abu Dhabi's AD Ports Group, frames the expansion as more than metal. "This investment is about much more than adding trucks," said Thorsten Pook, Managing Director of Noatum Logistics for the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and CIS. "It is about building the capabilities that enable us to stay closer to our customers, deliver greater certainty and efficiency across their supply chains, and respond quickly to changing market conditions."

The commercial logic is straightforward. A predominantly owned and operated fleet lets Noatum offer cross-border road transport as an in-house service rather than a brokered one, feeding its freight forwarding, contract logistics and project logistics lines. The company says the larger fleet also gives it more operational flexibility when customer requirements shift across regional supply chains.

What does this change for shippers?

The practical answer is control — and visibility. Every truck in the expanded fleet carries GPS tracking and feeds a centralised control tower, so Noatum can watch vehicle movements, shipment progress and asset utilisation in real time. For shippers, that means better oversight of regional transport without stitching together third-party carriers themselves.

There's also a resilience angle. Noatum is pairing the trucking operation with a dedicated rail shuttle linking Khalifa Port and Fujairah Terminals in the UAE. The two modes complement each other on capacity, cargo volumes and transit requirements, according to the company, giving customers alternative overland routes and a way to keep cargo moving during regional disruptions.

The multimodal setup supports bonded transport corridors connecting the UAE's industrial centres with regional seaports and airports. Noatum pitches these as extra options for shippers chasing supply chain continuity — a phrase that has done heavy lifting in the Gulf since the Red Sea rerouting era began.

Part of a wider pattern

The fleet doubling doesn't come from nowhere. In August, SANY delivered electric heavy trucks to Noatum Logistics, signalling that the operator has been building out its road transport capability in stages rather than one leap. Behind it all sits AD Ports Group, which continues to fund expansion across road, rail and digital infrastructure.

The strategy targets cross-border transport as a growth pillar, with the GCC as the core catchment. Doubling a fleet in six months is an aggressive pace by any regional standard — roughly four to five trucks joining the network every week.

For forwarders and competitors, the signal is that Noatum intends to capture more of the overland leg itself rather than hand it to subcontractors. For shippers moving cargo between UAE industrial hubs and the region's ports, an owned, tracked, Euro 5-compliant fleet with a rail alternative looks like a firmer offer than the market's spot-priced trucking norm.

The trajectory suggests more of the same: AD Ports Group has shown little appetite for slowing its logistics build-out, and Noatum's stated aim is to keep strengthening its cross-border position across the GCC.