ISSUE 3 2010


NEWS


Daily to Finland – a sign of the times?


UK based international road specialist RH Freight is now offering daily service to Helsinki. The new service runs from RH’s Thurrock


depot to the port of Travemunde in Northern Germany where the truck takes a daily sailing from there to Helsinki. The previous schedule was twice weekly, which meant that shipments that missed a departure could be in for a long wait. Deputy managing director, Andrew Baxter, said: “The route via Travemunde allows us to offer a special 72-hour express product to Finland, which is better than anything else on offer.” Other daily RH services operate to Helsingborg, Gothenburg, Oslo and Kolding. On the wider challenges


facing pan-European freight operations, Baxter added: “European distribution is still a complex business. As much as some people like to pretend otherwise, it is not the same as domestic distribution, there are many more complexities, leading to service failures, increased costs, and inconsistencies between countries. We are, like many of our competitors, working very hard to reduce those complexities, and progress is being made. But no carrier yet has a homogeneous pan-European product with the same level of quality and consistency as a domestic network.” He believes the fact that most carriers still


happen to European freight as well.” Baxter continued: “The reality is that twice


weekly services are not reliable. What happens at 11pm at night when all the freight won’t fit? Something gets left off, but the sales reps might have told all of the customers that their goods will go on that trailer.” He says that RH’s daily


services with double manned trucks and a thorough priority system means that more than half its shipments can go on the second departure and still deliver on time. But, “RH is largely an exception, as most of our competitors are yet to fully recognise the problem, let alone implement a solution.” There are other factors that


Andrew Baxter: The continent is still a complex place as far as distribution is concerned


affect the quality of European distribution, for example, the frequency and reliability of unaccompanied services, delays in crossing the channel, weather and industrial action - not to mention public holidays a difficult issue given


their number and the fact that they all occur on different days throughout Europe. “The reality in many continental countries is


operate twice weekly services is the main reason why European distribution is less reliable than domestic. “I am pleased to say that we have very nearly killed off twice weekly services in our business, with nearly all our consignments moving daily. Again if you compare this to the domestic scene, the days of doing the Manchester run on Tuesdays and Thursdays are long gone. Domestically, everything is daily, thanks largely to the pallet networks, and anything else is more or less unthinkable. And this change will in time


that distribution quality drops in the summer. In addition we also see drops in the quality and quantity of tracking data. Whilst it is fair to say that the differences are less today than they used to be, it is not true to think they have gone entirely.” He concludes: “Some people think that


the “integrated” networks have solved these problems. Whilst there is some validity to this argument, in most cases the inconsistencies are simply internalised rather than resolved. “I am not saying, that there is no progress.


The difference between domestic and European freight was much more pronounced ten years ago. Quality is improving significantly every year. But there is still a big difference.”


Traffic jam in a box


Vehicle internal combustion engines had been added to the dangerous goods list, mainly in response to an upsurge in shipments of secondhand cars stuffed into containers, said Marine & Coastguard Agency hazardous cargoes adviser, Keith Bradley. He told a Freight Transport Association conference on dangerous goods that up to six vehicles, which are destined to be broken up for spares, can be stuffed into a container on top of each other and at all angles, so petrol, oil and other fluids can often leak out. The reclassification is part


of changes to the IMDG (International


Maritime


Dangerous Goods) code that come into force on 1 January 2011. The class 9 classification only applies to vehicles in containers, not those on ro ro or dedicated car carrying vessels.


7 ROUND-UP: ROAD & RAIL


Irish independent delivery company Nightline has opened a new office at Altham, near Accrington which it intends to use as a springboard into mainland Britain. Nightline already owns seven depots including sites at Dublin, Belfast, Galway and Cork. The Altham depot will also play a key role in the new strategic partnership between Nightline and UK Pallets. Nightline will handle all Ireland-bound traffic on behalf of UK Pallets’ 80


member carriers.


CFS International of Dublin has signed a three-year franchise agreement with Europa Worldwide Group It allows CFS Dublin to trade under the name of ‘Europa Worldwide Logistics’ in the Republic of Ireland.


IM Properties has been granted planning permission by North Warwickshire Borough Council to develop a second, 124-acre phase at Birch Coppice Business Park with up to 2m sq ft of rail served warehousing. The site, within half a mile of the M42, is already served by Birmingham Intermodal Freight Terminal (BIFT) operated by Roadways Container Logistics. IM Properties is looking to start work as soon as possible and fully serviced plots will be available from March 2011. But in early August Communities Secretary Eric Pickles rejected plans


by developer Axa for a 110-acre intermodal rail terminal at Bearsted, near Maidstone in Kent.


Bulk wine transport specialist Trans Ocean –- a subsidiary of the Hillebrand Group – Network Rail, rail freight operator Freightliner and wine company Constellation Europe have reactivated the South Liberty Lane terminal in Bristol for container trains after 20 years. Constellation imports bulk wine in ‘flexitanks’ – 24,000-litre bags that can be inserted inside a standard 20- foot dry van container and filled with wine - and the operation is expected to handle the equivalent of around 9 million bottles every year.


FTA Ireland, the new multi-modal transport trade association for Ireland established by the Freight Transport Association, has appointed Declan McKeon as its head of policy. He is a dangerous goods specialist with over 20 years’ experience in the logistics sector and previously was in charge of warehouse logistics for Coca-Cola Concentrate in Drogheda, Louth.


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