NEWS\\\


Issue 7 2014 - Freight Business Journal


7


Today Erith, tomorrow Dartford - and the world


Groupage operator and forwarder Europa plans to turn its new international hub at Dartford into a global hub when it moves there from its existing site in Erith, taking advantage in the mismatch in the UK’s trade flows,says owner Andrew Baxter. The UK is oſten under- rated as an international freight forwarding hub says Baxter, a former owner of RH Freight who bought out Europa in August last year. However, he says: “I see good opportunities especially with the new London Gateway port of importing goods from, say, Hong Kong using European’s air and sea forwarding department, storing them in Dartford and then redistributing to the rest of Europe. People under-estimate how good a hub the UK can be for this type of operation – because of the imbalance of trade, export prices from the UK to the rest of Europe are very low, whereas from some of the Continental hubs they can be quite expensive.” When Europa moves in


Bullet adds container services


Scottish logistics company Bullet Express Ltd has opened a four-acre container destuffing, storage and pick and pack facility in East Kilbride. It complements Bullet’s existing Bothwell distribution site. MD David McCutcheon described the move as “a natural progression that’s been brought forward by customer pressure”, adding that he hoped that the securely fenced, CCTV- and barrier-protected site could also be a bonded facility in the near future. The facility has 14 dock levellers for container loading and unloading , storage capability for over 4000 pallets,


yard parking ,office accommodation for rent as well as a separate five-bay vehicle maintenance facility which will be rented out.


New freight payment service for Europe


U.S. Bank is expanding its freight-payment trade finance service into Europe, with a new trade finance capability, the first solution of its kind in the region, it says. Through its Brussels-based subsidiary, Elavon Freight Payment, the bank will allow shippers to hold onto


their cash longer while accelerating payment to their carriers. This, it says, offers carriers a cost-effective alternative to factoring and other financing options commonly used in Europe. The offering also includes VAT support and consolidated invoice processing. Customers can choose German, French or English.


about May 2015 from its old international hub at Erith to the new Dartford facility – at 264,000sq ſt, the largest of its kind in the UK by a considerable margin, says Baxter – the extra capacity will allow a major expansion of Europa’s existing services to Europe. Those services which are not currently daily will be stepped up, including Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and the Balkans. At the same time, more direct daily services will be offered to major cities, for example in Germany, avoiding


the need to tranship en route. The plan is to become the UK’s leading European groupage operator, he says. Baxter also plans to develop


logistics services further when the new Dartford hub opens. Europa


has already


restructured the air and ocean forwarding operations, moving it out of the branches to head office and combined the two European groupage operations departments


at Birmingham


and Erith into one entity, although goods will still move via Birmingham as required.


Letter to the Editor


Freight Audit & Pay – we were the pioneers Sir


I just received my first copy of the Freight


Business Journal and I was surprised to see all of the articles related to freight audit and pay.


I’ve


been involved in the freight audit and pay industry for over 27 years. During that time, I worked for three of the major players in the industry. AIMS Logistics was actually the first freight


audit and pay provider to have a “bricks and mortar” facility in Central Europe. It was opened in Belgium in 1999 when the Euro was introduced, which made the payment process much easier with one primary currency. AIMS was later


bought by US Bank in October 2007. One of the primary reasons for the purchase was due to our presence in Europe. Many of the providers today are touting global


locations with nothing much more than a local sales person working out of their home. Or, they have an informal agreement with a local 3PL company to share office space. The race is on to see who can capture market share in Europe because it has a lot of growth potential. Cecil Bryan President Logistics Alliance Network


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  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40