France Line: no new taxes but plenty of other pressures


22


The threat of the ‘Ecotaxe’ truck toll may have been liſted – at least for now – but there are plenty of other pressures on the haulage industry, says says Marie Boyer, managing director of Anglo-French operator, France Line. Driver shortages and rising ferry costs are putting margins under huge pressure, she says. The French Government’s plans


to introduce the Ecotaxe collapsed in disarray last year. Not enough operators had been registered for the scheme, there was a huge backlog of vehicles waiting to have the electronic black box fitted and there were also questions over the fitness for purpose of the legislation. The Ecotaxe was first


“postponed” and while initially the Government had plans to revive it, possibly in June, these hopes began to recede. Now, says Boyer, “the Ecotaxe has been indefinitely postponed and put away in a drawer” with no immediate prospect for its retrieval. Naturally, like most hauliers


Boyer is glad to see the back of Ecotaxe though she is rather miffed that the better-organised hauliers had paid for the black boxes and in some cases for installing them while others who managed to put of the decision have not paid anything at all. Naturally, a cash-squeezed


French Government does not want to pass up any opportunity to raise revenue from hauliers and other businesses, so an alternative vignette-based scheme has been proposed by the country’s finance minister. This would target foreign operators entering France through the country’s ferry ports but, says Boyer, the timetable for when it might be introduced is still very vague. But there are plenty of other


challenges for the industry to digest, Boyer continues. From 1 January, the cross-Channel ferry companies will be introducing a surcharge to take account of the new rules requiring shipping operators to use low sulphur fuel or fit exhaust scrubbers. P&O Ferries, for instance, is adding a £13.50 surcharge per freight vehicle on its Dover-Calais route, and the other companies are expected to introduce surcharges ranging from £13 to £20, says Boyer.


getting older, and the aim of


these the programmes


is to encourage other employees to move higher up


management


tree well before illness, retirement or even death leads to a forced change at the top, especially for small and medium-sized


“This is something we will not


be able to absorb,” she warns, and: “We will be looking to pass it on to our customers.” Talks with customers have been going on and the reaction has been mixed, with differing levels of awareness. One point that France Line has been making is to suggest to those customers that are only part- loading full trailers is to consider co-loading and spreading the cost that way. As a French specialist, France Line has a much better chance of finding a co-load partner than an operator that does not specialise in the country, Boyer argues. The existing shortage of drivers


and the ageing driver population has meanwhile been exacerbated by the new EU rules requiring drivers to obtain a Certificate of Professional Competence. The cost of this has pushed many older drivers who were teetering on the brink of retirement to do so, and it has also made the task of recruiting youngsters into the industry even harder. “We are supporting the efforts of BIFA, the Road Haulage Association and others to encourage people to become drivers, but it takes time,” Boyer states. France Line itself doesn’t


employ drivers directly, but its French haulier partners are putting pressure on regional bodies to entice more people into the industry. Meanwhile, they are looking to eastern Europe to fill the gaps. “They used to go there to find cheaper drivers, but increasingly it’s just to fill the shortage.” But the shortages go beyond


drivers; the ageing industry profile also affects management. Marie Boyer is involved with the Women in Logistics group in the UK which, alongside Skills for Logistics, is stepping up efforts to get more graduates to consider a career in the industry. At the same time, the French Astre pallet network, of which France Line is a member, is making similar efforts across the Channel. Company MDs are


firms. “Companies need to think about succession, and not leave it until it’s too late,” Boyer points out. France Line prefers to work with


smaller firms. “They share our values, because we are also a small company, and they oſten have the best customer service.” And there is also a plan, finally,


to expand into other European markets, but in a measured way. Last year, France Line joined the Astre logistics network, in which one of its shareholders, Baudouin, was already involved. This gives it access to the PaletSystem pan- European pallet network for the distribution of part loads of up to 10 pallets throughout France and Europe. Its membership includes over 120 hauliers in France and a further 200 members in other countries, with main French hubs in Paris, Lyon and Niort. Astre has a new president who


is pushing through a number of reforms including a new IT system and better commercial training, in order to help the network compete with the multinational operators. PaletSystem is going well,


says Boyer, but there is heavy competition in France for pallet business, with operators such as Pall-Ex and Palletforce setting up operations in the country. Full- and part-loads remain France Line’s main business, however. In the medium term, Boyer is


looking to expand France Line into other countries from the UK – for example Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain or Germany. “It’s not something we’re going to do tomorrow but we will look at it.” But she does not anticipate renaming the company to reflect any geographical expansion. She also anticipates that the customer base of mainly manufacturing companies will remain the same. In the UK, the company has


moved into larger refurbished offices, but at the same location. The extra space has allowed more staff to be taken on and gives room for expansion.


Issue 8 2014 - Freight Business Journal


///FRANCE A rail alternative for North Africa


The port of Marseilles in the south of France has a special relationship with North Africa – and one that is perhaps overlooked by UK shippers, says CEO Christine Cabau Woehrel. Not only does it have excellent container and ro ro links with the countries of the Mediterranean, but it also enjoys fast and frequent rail links to and from North Europe. Cargo railed via Marseilles


can be in Algeria in as little as three days, she points out, which compares very favourably with the time by road and it is much greener. At the same time, the rail-sea option is more frequent and much


faster than the


circuitous all-water route from North Europe to North Africa. A groupage operator looking to reach Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia reasonably quickly could do a lot worse than co- load with a partner in northern France or Belgium and take advantage of the swiſt links through Marseilles, Woehrel points out. Marseilles, an 80 million


tonnes a year port, handles around 1.2m teu a year, of which 16% is to or from North Africa. “The container operators have put together a very efficient system, with a full range of rail connections that allow boxes to be railed down from northern France, Belgium, Germany and, possibly, the UK to Marseilles and shipped to North Africa,” she told FBJ. Sailings from Marseilles are timed to operate over the weekend, so cargo can arrive early in the week at destination. There is plenty of competition


on French rails, Woehrel continues. As well as state


operator SNCF, Greenmodal, Europort, T3M and others also provide service to the north. Rail handling facilities at Marseilles are being upgraded. A new on- dock terminal with a first-phase capacity of 80-90,000 boxes a year us due to open in the second half of 2017. A second phase will raise capacity to around 150,000teu. She is also convinced that


there will be a big modal shiſt away from all-road routes in favour of alternatives like rail and short sea - though for that traffic that does continue to move on rubber tyres, Marseilles is also the main ro ro hub for much of North Africa. The core market for Tunisia,


Morocco and Algeria has always been France because of historic and linguistic ties, but trade with countries of Europe is growing fast. Morocco is an important supplier of food to the UK, for example and the Tunisian market is also growing rapidly. Problems with port infrastructure, which affected Algeria in particular, have largely been addressed, says Woehrel: “Tunisia has diversified its port range – you no longer


have to ship only to Rades – and Algeria has developed a ‘dry port’ concept to alleviate congestion whereby the port is used only to load and unload ships and all the other work, like stuffing or customs clearance, is carried inland.” In Morocco, Tangiers-Med


is already a major hub and has ambitions to expand still further, Woehrel adds. Marseilles has now signed


cooperation agreements with Algiers and Casablanca to exchange knowledge and expertise and to promote the region’s ports as an alternative to those in north Europe. As well as North Africa,


Marseilles also offers rapid links to Turkey, Egypt, Libya and Lebanon. Traffic to and from Turkey is up by about 18% aſter MSC, Borchard and Maersk upgraded services. It is also promoting its deep-sea services from and to the Far East as a time- and money-saving alternative to north European hubs. This is particularly appealing to customers located in inland Europe, away from the main north-west seaports, in Switzerland, Austria or southern Germany, for example.


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