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Issue 3 2013


///FREIGHT BREAK And you thought green Guinness was bad enough...


Stena Line’s publicity department took it upon themselves to turn their Lagan, seen here with the Liverpool waterfront in the background, ferry green to celebrate St Patrick’s Day on 17 March. Fortunately for ship-lovers and hung-over Scousers, the creation on closer examination appears to be a computer mock-up, not the real thing.


Racing uncertainty


Fans of Jeremy Clarkson (there’s no accounting for taste, I suppose) can pit themselves against the The Original Stig at the Multimodal show in April – but unloading boxes from a ship, not slamming an old banger round the racetrack. For the benefit of anyone who has


spent the last couple of decades in North Korea, the Stig is the Top Gear show’s ace racing driver who hides his identity behind the smoked glass visor of his crash helmet. His identity is only revealed after his retirement


and he is the gold standard against which all other would be Top Gear stars are measured. Using an exclusively designed


quay crane simulator, visitors to London Gateway’s stand will, for the first time ever, be able to exclusively challenge The Original Stig to a quay crane race. Following training from his crane driver cousin, attendees will have the chance to go head-to- head in a challenge to see if they can beat the Original Stig - Perry McCarthy - at offloading containers


from a container ship in a set time. Those who are victorious get an exclusive prize. Losers will get nothing but their name on the leader board. According to DP World, when


questioned about the challenge, the Original Stig had nothing to say. But does skill behind the wheel of a high-powered racing car necessarily translate to the intricate skills involved in moving and positioning containers? Perhaps he’s worried.


Moveable feast


Trailer-maker Krone has just sunk €35 million into its new joint-venture Turkish factory with Dogus Otomotiv near Izmir (see Equipment Corner, p37) so with typical German thoroughness, it has carefully researched the local market. All countries have their peculiarities - curtainsider versus solid trailers, high cubes and so on – but there was one that the Krone people hadn’t come across before. As well as a 50-litre water tank, “virtually all


Turkish trailers, at least 90-95%, also have a food box” a Krone spokesman explained. And this underslung box is


huge – about the size of a filing cabinet on its side, with shelves and even a little cast-iron ring to hold a primus stove. I know Turkey is a big country, but some of these guys must get through almost as much food as I do, and that’s saying something. Truck-driving in Turkey is a


very social affair. It’s common to see groups of drivers parked up


in lay-bys and rest areas all over the country, setting the world to rights over a few kebabs and cups of chai. More food equals more chat I suppose and who’s in a hurry anyway? The only difficulty I can see


is that it could make trailer swaps


a rather long-drawn-


out affair, though I understand from Krone that they are not particularly common in Turkey. Perhaps it just takes too long to transfer all these portable larders.


Strange behaviour of the Woodland folk


This, apparently, is what staff at an Essex freight forwarder get up to if leſt unsupervised for any period of time. We are reliably informed that


they are staff at Chelmsford- based forwarder doing the Harlem Shake. For those not familiar with


genre (and in the absence of any ‘Yoof’, that is, anyone under the age of 50, to quiz, we are reliant on Wikipedia for our information) it’s the latest Internet phenomenon. It opens with a fairly banal scene like an office or a street - except for one individual who may be wearing a funny hat or engaging in some mildly eccentric


behaviour, while all around him go about their normal business oblivious. Then suddenly the scene


is transformed, with dozens of people screeching, yelping leaping around in bizarre contortions, all accompanied by the sounds of the Harlem Shake. (We assume some video editing trickery is involved.) Come to think of it, that’s a fairly


good description of the average day in a typical freight forwarders’ office, though maybe replacing the soundtrack with a steady stream of expletives from the manager’s office. Still, we’re sure it’s all good


clean fun and the 35 Woodland staff raised £1,000 for Comic Relief in the process. Bad news for anyone who took part and since regretted it – the thing has been posted on Youtube and sent to clients and associates all around the world, though I see one chap took the wise precaution of hiding his head in a cardboard box. http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=nuQWy78tWU8


Your International Freight Forwarding Partner Africa – Middle East – Asia


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Call us on 020 8645 0666 or 0774 8505350 info@skyswiftuk.com | www.skyswiftuk.com


Rough ride


Transatlantic shippers could be in for a rough ride – literally – if scientists are to be believed. Climate change could mean that planes flying the Pond could encounter a lot more turbulence over the next few years, says a new study by Reading University,


published in Nature Climate Change. It suggests that by mid- century planes will be bounced around more, and more oſten, because the amount of airspace affected by turbulence will also increase. Planes could also burn more


fuel as pilots tried to steer a passage around the worst of the weather, adds the University’s Dr Paul Williams. So will we see a turbulence


surcharge added to the list of security, fuel and other add-ons to air freight rates?


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