2


Issue4 2013


New partnership aims to raise the game in pharma logistics


Nolan Transport, Bech-Hansen & Studsgaard and H. Essers are launching a new cooperation that aims to raise the game in pharmaceutical and life science logistics in Europe. Brand-named PLAN Europe, it will operate across Europe and the CIS countries with its own dedicated pharma fleet of more than 450 trucks, pro-actively monitored by a 24/7 manned ‘control tower’. PLAN will also operate a network of its own cross docks in Europe. It will offer solutions for full (FTL) and less-than trailer load (LTL) orders for pharma products The three founding partners


have signed a service level agreement and technical standard to ensure quality, absolute visibility and reliability. The target now is to expand the


network by the end of 2014 with six to eight new partners at strategic locations across Europe and CIS countries, including Iberia, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Russia, Turkey and North Africa. Nolan Transport managing


director Richard Nolan said the initiative had entirely


come from the pharma industry itself,


which is anxious to drive up quality standards in life science logistics. New European-wide rules, known as GDP2, are due to come into force later in the year, and will demand the highest standards of temperature control and monitoring throughout the supply chain. The GDP2 rules insist that everything in the supply chain is totally traceable, down to individual drivers, individual vehicles and that there are IT systems that pro-actively warn of any developing issues, monitored 24 hours a day. Nolan already has its own IT business unit to develop bespoke


logistics soſtware and


its partners have taken a similar approach, because existing off the shelf track and trace technology is not up to the task, Nolan explained. “This initiative is being driven entirely by the pharma industry. They want absolute accuracy and they also want to eliminate the uncertainty of sub-contracting.” He added: “The whole reasoning


behind PLAN is that it is quality and not money driven. Everything that we move will be moved by us, or one of our partners, on our own assets that will be absolutely controlled.”


CILT to relaunch Customs forum


The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport is to restart its Customs and International Trade Forum this year, under the chairmanship of Mark Corby. There will be regular meetings on topics such as customs, export controls and trade compliance with speakers from HMRC, the Department for Business and others. Members will also have


the opportunity to meet and network with trade compliance professionals from the private sector and government, learn about best practice and receive regular updates on important changes. The programme will be announced later. For further information visit: http://www.ciltuk.org.uk


///NEWS


Crunch time on the railways


>>1


soon “reach a point very shortly when


further growth in rail traffic will be capped by the lack of available capacity,” say Hopkins and Russell. Radical solutions, including


building of new infrastructure rather than tinkering with existing routes will be needed if rail freight is to continue growing, they argue. Growth of rail could also be


PLAN members will operate


their own cross-docks, built to exacting multi-temperature standards and under the controlled of fully trained personnel. Nolan itself is in the process of building one in south- east Ireland and is planning to open a similar facility in the UK in either the Midlands or Kent. The company operates 109 trailers, dedicated to the pharma business. Nolan predicted that GDP2


would end the practice of logistics operators mixing life-science traffic with other, oſten unsuitable, types of cargo. “The industry is risk averse and everything has to be absolutely accountable,” he told FBJ. But at the same time margins in pharma manufacturing are under pressure, with a wide scale switch to generic drugs by national health authorities throughout Europe. The PLAN partners can already


cover the whole of Europe, albeit with some operation over rather longer distances than would be ideal, so time can be taken to recruit additional partners. There are only a limited number of companies in Europe that can reach the exacting standards required by the life sciences industry, Nolan considers. “For instance, I know of only one company in the UK that maybe


we could get together with,” he suggested, adding: “There are also lots of pretenders out there, but we are talking about companies that have genuine expertise and that the industry knows are capable of delivering. This is more than about just having a certificate on a wall – this is absolute real time control.”


Yusen Logistics (YL) has


launched a new airfreight operation to transport prescription drugs from the UK to Australia for AstraZeneca. The forwarder moves the


cargo from AZ’s UK central warehouse


in Macclesfield to


Sydney, maintaining a stringent temperature regime throughout the supply chain and with all movements made under high security. Thermal protection is applied to every pallet and movements are timed to arrive in Sydney at the coolest time of day. The cargo is stored under strict temperature control during transit, ensuring product integrity at all times. All movements are managed


by the Yusen Logistics ‘Control Tower’ which provides an aerial view of European and global movements, across the modes of road, sea and air and giving AZ Macclesfield a single point of contact.


Nolan to the rescue >>1


While cattle can be kept alive on a


diet of ‘nuts’, lack of hay means no roughage in cattle diets and that in turn leads to a total loss of milk production. Nolan Transport was approached in mid-April by Farm Minister Simon Coveney, MEP Sean Kelly and Dairygold CEO Jim Woulfe, along with along with senior members of the farming community, to mount an emergency transport operation. Hay was purchased from


farmers all over the south of England, including Hampshire, Kent, Shropshire and Norfolk and its distribution coordinated by Kent farming contractor, Burden Brothers, while Nolan transport agreed to move it to Ireland at cost price, said Colm Murphy.


hampered by the network’s inability to carry standard-sized lorry trailers on flat wagons without resorting to expensive solutions such as pocket wagons, they add. Continental European railways are developing a network of routes suitable for this type of traffic, they say. While Network Rail, and British


Rail before them, have altered structures to make it possible to move larger container sizes on railway wagons this has only been achieved on a limited number of routes which are already heavily used by passenger traffic. None of the existing rail routes in Britain except the High Speed 1 line from the Channel Tunnel to London HS1 are cleared for the extra height required for lorry trailers or even containers if using standard European height rail wagons. Enlarging existing routes to


accommodate road trailers, including replacing the very many low bridges, tunnels and overhead line electrification systems would be prohibitive, as well as extremely disruptive.


While the transport operation had gone smoothly, “we could have done the operation in less time and at less cost if our hands were not tied by the cabotage laws.” These required that tractor units travel back on the ferry to Ireland aſter every third domestic run in the UK. (The issue of cabotage between the UK and Ireland has become controversial recently – see FBJ 2 2013, page 1.) Colm Murphy also praised


the efforts of Irish Ferries staff in keeping the trailers moving on their service from Pembroke. Hay – not commonly transported long distances across the water – is classified as dangerous goods because of the potential fire risk and has to travel on an outside deck, forcing the ferry operator to juggle loads on board ship.


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FBJ May_2013_ 60_270mm(2).indd 1 www.logistics.dbschenker.co.uk 10/05/2013 08:49:14


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