MULTIMODAL 2012 REVIEW\\\ Sun shines on Brittany
Brittany Ferries’ Jon Clarke says that his UK/Spain freight traffic is holding up well, despite the recession. The line operates regular services from Portsmouth and Plymouth to Santander and from Portsmouth to Bilbao and is on target to repeat roughly the same volumes as last year, “not a bad result considering the turmoil in the Spanish economy,” comments the group freight director. The growth has been accompanied by a slow but sure move towards
unaccompanied traffic, a trend that he predicts will increase with the introduction of full cabotage in 2014. That could lead to foreign operators basing their tractor units in the UK and feeding trailers to and from the ferries to travel as unaccompanied loads. A further boost to the Spanish
routes should come from the introduction in France of an ‘Ecotax’ that would apply to trucks using not only the autoroutes but the standard routes nationales.
UK way behind on AEO
The UK is lagging serious behind the rest of Europe in terms of the numbers of companies that have become or applied for Authorised Economic Operator status, a Deloitte expert told a seminar at Multimodal on 1 May. Arne Mielken, assistant manager for customs and global trade at the business consultancy firm, pointed out that, four years into the AEO programme, the UK has 455 AEO applications versus 6196
in Germany and 313 versus 5448 actual certificates. While Germany is way ahead of all other EU countries, the UK is also lagging behind other countries such as Spain and France. “The problem is that if a US company is certified under the C-TPAT
that
programme needs an EU partner with a similar certification, where are they going to go – Germany or the UK?” asked Mielken.
It’s business as usual on the Thames
Tilbury may be the nearest port to the new London Gateway development, but the effect of the new port on business will be minimal, predicts Perry Glading, chief operating officer at Tilbury’s owners, Forth Ports. The company is in the process of merging the two container operations at Tilbury to create a new unified operation that, at 700,000teu a year capacity, will be actually greater than the sum of
its parts. (Forth Ports
recently bought out its partners DP World and ABP in one of the two operations, Tilbury Container Services.) Over the next two years, Tilbury
will create a single gate and merge the two terminals’ IT systems.
Tilbury is ideal for smaller-
vessel operations, and it also has important markets in general cargo and bulks that would be of no interest to the new neighbour, Perry Glading explains.
“For example,
we have MacAndrews coming in from Iberia, an operation that has also grown to include Scandinavia, with transhipment in Tilbury from Iberia to Sweden, and which has taken a lot of trucks off the road.” Tilbury’s more compact size and smaller cranes are much better suited to running this sort of high- intensity operation than a large container hub geared to 14,000teu ships, he argues.
George Baker ready to step up a gear
Felixstowe-based George Baker is looking ahead to Phase 2 of the expansion of its Transport division. Managing director, George Baker himself, explains that having built up an effective fleet of container trucks, he is looking at ways of expanding the operation. “That might be by using owner-drivers, or through acquisitions,” he says. He adds that the growth may
not necessarily be in Felixstowe itself. “We have to keep an eye on developments with the rail networks – it’s possible that we may have vehicles based at the rail hubs, and we do already have a small depot in Wigan.”
George Baker also operates curtainsiders and containers can be brought off the ship to the company’s depot right next to Felixstowe dock gate, offloaded using one of the eight dock levellers and the contents transferred to the curtainsider fleet. There are plug-in points for reefers, which mean that reefer boxes can be stored close to the port of arrival but without incurring the heavy charges for reefer points on the dockside itself. There is also a car compound for handling vehicles shipped in boxes and all the premises have high security. The company is also AEO- accredited.
• Comprehensive, daily UK and European distribution services • Connected to a European network of more than 200 branches • Fully bar-coded track and trace system • Locally-based, experienced and knowledgeable staff
For more information, please contact one of our regional branches to learn how DACHSER’s Intelligent Logistics can help your business.
Dartford: 01322 299615 Rochdale: 01706 758041 Northampton: 01604 666217
www.dachser.co.uk
YOUR LOCAL PLATFORM FOR EUROPE
Freight and logistics specialist Dachser is continuing to expand its direct trailer services from the UK to Europe, says managing director Nick Lowe. Daily hub and spoke services are available from Dachser’s UK hubs at Dartford, Northampton and Rochdale to over 30 countries, but as volumes grow, the number of direct links are being increased. “A good example of that is our
new co-operation with our strategic partner
in Italy, Fercam, which
Issue 3 2012
Dachser takes the direct approach
has allowed a direct service into Milan,” Nick Lowe explains. A direct connection can save a day in transit time, and is complimentary to the daily hub and spoke network departures which optimise Dachser’s European network and offer a range of competitive transit times backed up by full traceability at all stages of the journey. The strategy is working, says Nick Lowe, with growth of around 30% in Dachser’s European export business in 2011, and a strong
start to 2012. Dachser is also using more double-deck trailers with a moveable bar system on its European services, which avoids double stacking of pallets whilst maximising trailer capacity. The company is a member of
the Palletline network through its acquisition of Leach in Rochdale. It is also part of the Hazchem network for hazardous good distribution in the UK, and enjoys support from UK Pallets for European export business.
include the
17
Plans for the next 3-4 years extending
branch
network in the UK to the south-west and north-east, and the further development of contract logistics business. “We wouldn’t rule out further regional acquisitions, either” concludes Nick Lowe - “but as we ensured with Leach Distribution, we would want to make absolutely certain that the target companies are a perfect operational and cultural fit for us’’.
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