FBJ 4 FREIGHT BUSINESS JOURNAL


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Issue 8 2013 Freight Business Journal FROM THE EDITOR


As my train wended its way through Purfleet, Grays and Tilbury on the day of the grand opening of the world’s newest port, London Gateway, I got to thinking: this is London’s Docklands now. As with many of the world’s great maritime cities, the port industry has moved out of town and spread itself along a wide expanse of river estuary where land is easier to come by and the roads less congested. These days, the only ships you’ll see in the old London Docklands have been converted into bars catering to the minions of the financial services industry. The old docklands has had hundreds of millons of pounds lavished on it – bright red trains


By Chris Lewis


whizz every few seconds along the extensive light railway system, road tunnels and, soon, a branch of the massively expensive London Crossrail scheme. What a pity that the new London Docklands hasn’t been able to attract the same level of


spending for its inland transport infrastcture. The few junction and road improvements in the London Gateway area have been paid for by the port’s developers, DP World. But there are still question marks over how many freight trains the port’s sole rail link to the outside world, the busy London, Tilbury & Southend commuter line and its Braking-Gospel Oak offshoot can handle.


It’s perfectly legal to operate trucks 4.65 metres high in Ireland, and you can have even bigger ones in the UK. But if you send a truck across the Irish Sea, in future you could be breaking the law. Likewise, double-artics up to 18.75m are allowed in Sweden, and in Finland. But maybe not between Sweden and Finland, if certain factions in the European Parliament get their way. Such is the convoluted nature of the Brussels legislative process, which certainly has many


outsiders scratching their heads. The reason is that there is wider politics in play than the simple matter of truck dimensions.


Although road safety is oſten cited as the reason for opposing larger trucks, everyone knows that the real reason is that bigger trucks could abstract a certain amount of freight from the railways or the inland waterways. No one is seriously suggesting that these larger trucks will be used to deliver to city centres or down narrow country roads. Even if they were, a simple length limit, similar in principle to the weight limits to be found in every town and city centre should suffice to keep the ‘monster trucks’ at bay. Stuffing more freight into lorries will cut carbon; arguably, it could improve road safety and


reduce congestion because fewer, albeit larger, trucks on the road mean fewer lorries to crash into cars. The mooted ban on cross-border operation of so called ‘gigaliners’ is the latest battle in a long drawn out war that is being fought in the debating chambers of Brussels. Personally, I’m a big supporter of the railways, but I’ve never been comfortable with their


stance on bigger lorries. Rail has all the credentials as the ‘green’ mode of transport – but why should the industry lobby to prevent road operators from improving their environmental performance?


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The other day, for reasons I won’t go into, I cycled from Cefn-y-bedd station near Wrexham in North Wales along the Ffrwd Road to the former steelworks village of Brymbo. It was a typical Welsh country scene; profound silence broken only the splash of a mountain stream and the occasional lowing cattle. But reading up on the area on the internet aſterwards, it came as quite a surprise to learn that it was not quite the Celtic rural idyll it seemed. The whole valley was teeming with industry – some of it active until relatively recently. But you would never think that now. These days, any port-related development will spend far longer at the planning and


environmental assessment stage than in construction. The operation to move tens of thousands of animals, bugs and plants at the London Gateway site was a major industry in its own right. And on the TV news the other day, there was a clip about what is considered to be one of the country’s best Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), absolutely teeming with insect, plant and aninal life. It wasn’t, as you might expect, in the Lake District or the Highlands of Scotland, but the site of an oil refinery close to London Gateway; it was built but never put into operation and then lapsed into slumber in the mid-1970s. It is right that we are concerned about the environment and that we don’t do things that will mess things up for future generations. But without giving developers and industrials carte blanche to go wrecking the ecosystem, it’s also worth remembering that Mother Nature can be a tough old bird.


The market is no respecter of age or history, as anyone involved with venerable forwarder and ship’s agent Charles Gee will tell you. Having celebrate its its 125th anniversary in 2012, this year cash flow problems have led to the administrators being called in. With luck, a buyer will be found, at least for some of the business and one of the oldest names in the business will be allowed to live on, but it’s clearly not good news for the company’s staff, suppliers or customers.


Still, we should not be too surprised. Freight has always been at the


mercy of the ebb and flow of international commerce and the world economy. As Alliance Shipping founder and owner, Gary Waller points out, there has been a multicplicty of collpased freight forwarders over the past two decades. Where one forwarder falls by the wayside, another will oſten spring up to take its place; sometimes two or more companies as former employees take their talents and set up in business for themselves. It’s that which gives forwarding its dynanism. Time does fly, though. It only seems like yesterday that Gary Waller was setting up Alliance Shipping. Now, at the ripe old age of 37, the company can claim to be one of the stalwarts of the industry.


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


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KEEP UP TO DATE WITH MULTIMODAL


Multimodal 2014 is teaming up with FBJ to launch a daily newsletter at next year’s event in Birmingham, covering the three-day Supply Chain Insight Seminars and delivering news and views from the exhibition. In the run up to the show at the Birmingham NEC on 29 April-1 May, the Multimodal team will also be sharing insight on some of the seminar topics in a regular FBJ column. Multimodal 2014 is set to be the biggest in the show’s eight-year history with over 175 exhibitiors already booked, and well over 6,000 vistors expected. Multimodal has linked up with the Chartered


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Transport (CILT) and the Freight Transport Association (FTA) to develop the Supply Chain Best Practice Seminars. The series of panel discussions, master classes and case studies will help visitors navigate


logistics, legislation and compliance landscape, and help delegates embrace and understand new trends. Sessions will cover trends in click and collect and reverse logistics, as well as supply chain risks and costs, and the latest developments for portcentric users. An in-depth look at container weight regulations and the future of driver CPCs will ensure delegates are well prepared for new legislation, and speakers will be on hand to answer questions. Humanitarian logistics and modal shiſt will also feature. This year’s Multimodal show was visited by over 6,070 cargo owners, manufacturers, and retailers, including Amazon, Bacardi, Unilever, and PepsiCo. Registration for Multimodal 2014 and the seminars is free and will be bookable on- line from the New Year. See more at www.multimodal.org.uk


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