FBJ 4 FREIGHT BUSINESS JOURNAL


CONTACTS 2012 SALES


JOHN SAUNDERS - PUBLISHER Tel: +44 (0)151 427 6800 Fax: +44 (0)151 427 1796 Mobile: +44 (0)7932 102026 john.saunders@fj-online.com


RAY GIRVAN Tel: +44 (0)1691 718 045


ED ANDREWS Tel: +44 (0)20 85308322


EDITORIAL


CHRIS LEWIS - EDITOR +44 (0)7778 106433


chris.lewis@fj-online.com MARTIN ROEBUCK PHIL HASTINGS JAMES GRAHAM


CIRCULATION


Tel: +44 (0)151 427 6800 circulation@fj-online.com


ADVERTISEMENT PRODUCTION


LORRAINE CHRISTIAN Tel: +44 (0)151 427 6800 lorraine.christian@fj-online.com


WILL PLANT Tel: +44 (0)151 427 6800 will.plant@fj-online.com


HEAD OFFICE


FREIGHT BUSINESS JOURNAL Saunders Associates Ltd Station House Mersey Road Liverpool UK L17 6AG


Tel: +44 (0)151 427 6800 Fax: +44 (0)151 427 1796 Email: info@fj-online.com Web: www.fj-online.com


If HS2 isn’t going to go ahead, might it be worth dusting down the Central Railway plans? This, some readers might remember, was a scheme created about 20 years ago to reopen part of the closed Great Central main line from London to the Midlands and beyond as a large-gauge freight only route. It had the advantage of an a largely extant existing track bed although some work would have been needed to restore or enlarge bridges and tunnels. As the route was envisaged also as a link to the Channel, it would also have been necessary to create a large-gauge route across or around London and on to the south coast. The original Grand Central scheme drowned in a welter of protests from local


residents, North London MPs and assorted protest groups – but with the new Major Infrastructure Planning Commission in place, might it stand a better chance?


Pushing new transport routes through residential areas is always guaranteed to get the fur flying, but are we a bit too sensitive? A few weeks ago, I booked myself a cheap hotel in a suburb of Amsterdam (strictly for editorial purposes, not pleasure, you understand.) Looking up the location on Google maps, I was rather dismayed to find that it was hard up against the city’s main ring motorway. But on arrival at the location, the motorway seemed eerily quiet. At first I thought it


had been closed by some ‘incident’ but then I detected the occasional low rumble from a passing truck and the high-pitched scream of a motorbike. The motorway was open all right - busy, in fact - but the noise seemed scarcely to register. Now maybe the Dutch have come up with some fiendishly clever piece of noise-


baffling technology known only to them, but as far I could tell it was enclosed by nothing more sophisticated than two strips of Plexiglass. Surely something, must have been learned about noise abatement measures since Westway was pushed through inner London and South Wales residents found themselves eyeballing traffic on the M4 from their bedroom windows? Would a new road or railway be such a bad neighbour, after all?


It’s frequently said that Britain ‘doesn’t make things any more’ or that we are no longer an exporting nation. Neither statement is true, but the closure of high-profile operations like Rover cars and the fact that almost all the non-food goods in your local supermarket is labelled ‘Made in China’ does lend a certain credence to such statements as far as the man or woman in the street is concerned. But what we are good at selling to the rest of the world are ideas (even if the England


team seemed singularly lacking in them against Italy the other Sunday), and in the modern economy ideas can be far more powerful than physical things – and one of the UK’s most successful ideas exports is logistics. Concepts like third party logistics and supply chain management are as thoroughly British as red post boxes and shortbread biscuits. Now, the latest wave of UK supply chain thinking is the pallet network. Having


developed the concept in this country, to the point where the domestic market is in fact probably saturated, several operators have taken the idea to other countries to set up domestic networks – and a couple have also taken the bold step of establishing pan-


The Multi-award Winning Specialist Recruiter for Freight, Logistics & Supply Chain Personnel


www.logiskills.com


Issue 4 2012 FROM THE EDITOR The latest news from


Westminster suggests that plans to build the ‘High Speed 2’ fast rail ‘bypass’ route between London and Birmingham may be put on hold indefinitely. While the HS2 scheme was


not unalloyed good news for the freight industry – in some respects and under some scenarios it might have led to less capacity for freight on the West Coast Main Line north of Birmingham – this would, if true, be a real setback for all those who believe that the UK urgently needs more and better transport links. If HS2 were to be abandoned, it would no doubt be celebrated by the Village Green


By Chris Lewis


Preservation Society. But if it means more traffic on the roads or existing railways, it could be a pyrrhic victory.


///OPINION


FBJ has already become established as the only UK and one of the few pan-European Multimodal newspapers. The comments we have received prove there is still room for a hard copy publication with the freighting industry. You don’t have to look at a screen all day!


FBJ boasts the most informative and authoritative source of information with unrivalled in-depth knowledge of the rapidly changing freight business environment.


As the definitive publication within the sea, air, road and rail freight sectors, each issue includes regular news and analysis, in-depth coverage discovering the business decisions behind the news stories, shipper and exporter reports, opinion, geographical features, political and environmental issues.


If you have any stories or letters which should be of interest or any feedback on FBJ, please contact our editor Chris Lewis - +44 (0)208 6450666 chris.lewis@fj-online.com


next issue >> circulation >>


To guarantee your personal copy of FBJ please register by emailing your details to circulation@fj-online.com or cover sheet included with this issue.


fax back the address


European systems. How successful these will be, only time will tell – but it might possible change the face of European logistics forever.


It’s no accident that several of the news stories in this edition of FBJ are about the EU’s activities, or lack of them. There are times when the Brussels legislative machine ties itself in such knots as to be almost farcical, such as its indecision on operating 25-metre trucks between countries that authorise them on their own territory. Yes, you can operate them wholly within Sweden, or Finland, but woe betide any operator that oversteps the mark and crosses the border between those two countries – though quite who would enforce this law is unclear. Still, like it or not Brussels is also our best hope for ensuring that we get some sort


of free transport market in Europe. Efforts to free up road cabotage and especially the railways often seem excruciatingly slow at time, but they are at least moving in something like the right direction. Like England supporters, we just have to be patient.


Our next issue will include features on Ireland, Indian Subcontinent and


Southampton. There will also be our regular IT Section and news pages. For further details contact: John Saunders - +44 (0) 151 427 6800 john.saunders@fj-online.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36