ISSUE 4 2011
RO RO Brittany builds Spanish business
Traffic on Brittany Ferries’ service from Spain the the UK is building up nicely, despite the generally difficult economic climate, says group freight director, Jon Clarke. A twice weekly service from Portsmouth to Bilbao introduced this year and operated by the 33,000 tonne freight vessel Cap Finistère is in addition to the twice weekly Portsmouth-Santander, weekly Plymouth-Santander and the weekly Poole-Santander services, giving a total of six return crossings a week between the UK and Spain - four from Portsmouth, one from Plymouth and one from Poole. The enhancement to the Spanish services was made possible by the reinstatement of the Barfleur as a freight-orientated ferry on the Poole-Cherbourg route in April, which in turn released tonnage
for the Spanish routes, Clarke explains. The Barfleur will remain on the French route until 3 October. However, there is no doubt that the market is currently very tough, Clarke continues. “We had a good first five months to our financial year (beginning in October) including a good first three months in the 2011 calendar year, but from Easter it became very slack.” It’s hard to put a finger on exactly why, other than the overall economic situation. “Even travelling around the motorways of the UK, there are noticeably fewer trucks on the road,” he points out. However, there are some bright spots on the horizon for Brittany Ferries. The French seasonal truck driving ban tends to increase demand for Brittany’s Spanish
P&O still unhappy over privatisation plan
P&O Ferries chief executive Helen Deeble has written to members of the Transport Select Committee, and also to all Kent MPs saying that the ferry operator is still “deeply unhappy” about the way it is being treated by the management of Dover Harbour Board over the proposed privatisation of the port. She added: “We are very worried that the prospects of our vital industry and those of thousands of employees dependent upon it will be irreparably damaged if Dover Harbour Board is allowed to proceed with its privatisation scheme unchecked.”
The Secretary of State for
Transport has invited comment on the draft guidance he issued on 16 May on privatisation of trust ports. Deeble said that at no time had P&O been able to have a satisfactory dialogue with the chief executive and board of Dover Harbour Board. Given the monopoly nature of the port - no other facilities in the area able to handle the existing operators’ vessels - “the proposed structure and emphasis on profit growth” would encourage a hike in tariffs, she said. “The operators believe DHB is abusing its dominant position and that this situation will be exacerbated after privatisation unless control mechanisms are in place.”
Deeble also called on the Government not to leave the privatisation process to be managed by the Dover Harbour Board as this could lead to a serious conflict of
interest with DHB deciding which bidder is selected. She pointed to DHB’s rejection of local MP Charlie Elphicke’s proposals for a ‘People’s Port’ - “whereas the ferry operators are more persuaded by his plans because they recognise the key role that major stakeholders can play in the future success of the port. DHB’s plans do not.”
As for plans for management and employee share ownership, she continued, “we do not object to market levels of rewards in such a scheme based on the creation of future value but we do not believe that the value of a thousand years of history and the last 50 years of commercial development should be distributed to the incumbent staff.” There should also be a back
claw mechanism on any
subsequent sale to ensure that any undervaluation was fully recovered by UK taxpayers. Any privatisation scheme should include agreement over
the long-term tariffs and
capital expenditure plans and ring-fencing or return of the £60 million fund collected from the ferry operators and DHB for the Terminal 2 development. Deeble said: “We had been told that DHB intended to ring-fence these funds but now understand these funds will now be used to fund their own proposed community trust, the costs of privatisation and the DHB pension scheme. For us this tarnishes the whole process of transition from trust port to private entity.”
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services as operators seek to avoid the country.
The market is gradually becoming attuned to the near- daily service between the UK and Spain, Clarke believes. “Quite frankly, there wasn’t a consistent service on the route by any operator, until 2007. But that has changed with the introduction of the Cap Finistère.”
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Many truck operators are now designing their schedules so that driver’s weekly 24-hour statutory rest periods can be spent aboard one of Brittany’s vessels, which take 24/27 hours to complete the crossing. Interestingly, although most of the operator’s routes are fairly long, unaccompanied traffic accounts for under 20% of total freight, Clarke says.
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SO HOW DID THEY GET THERE?
Email:
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