John Shirley: knowing the ropes is vital 20


John Shirley – owner of the Dover-based forwarder that bears his name – has carved out a niche market in the once troubled countries of the Balkans and other parts of Eastern Europe. With the end of the civil war in ex-Yugoslavia and the subsequent Kosovo crisis, the region may have been more-or-less peaceful, but it is quite a tricky part of the world to deal with. Apart from recent EU entrant Croatia, customs clearance is still required and regulations and practices vary from country to country, or even from one region of the same country to another. John Shirley had signed an deal


integration with Essex-


based forwarder Delamode about a year ago but, since 1 November, the new companies have operating independently again.


especially as large parts of the region were still a war-zone. The solution was obvious – put the two together. The charities could obtain much better freight rates than they were getting, returning trucks would no longer be empty and, moreover, the charities were getting the services of a driver who spoke the local language at destination and knew the ropes as far as customs clearance and officialdom was concerned – so John Shirley Ltd was born. As well as aid work, there was


also business from the British and US militaries – for example Bailey bridges to replace those that had been blown up in the fighting, along with traffic from the Crown Agents. One of the more memorable


jobs was moving a hangar-full of dried biscuits (the sort that have to be reconstituted with water) that had been there


“Of course, we didn’t tell the clients


that their cargo was in danger of being bombed.”


John Shirley got into the


transport business in 1996 when he got made redundant from a commodity trading company in London. He took a job with Dover-based customs broker LCL and was able to put his impressive linguistic ability – Serbo-Croat, some Albanian, French and Spanish – to good use liaising with the drivers pouring


through the Eastern


Docks. (He has a degree in Serbo- Croatian.) One of the drivers’ biggest


complaints was the lack of return loads back to their home countries. But at the same time, many charities were sending aid goods of all descriptions to this part of the world, and were oſten finding it difficult and expensive,


since 1963, Shirley recalls: “The warehouseman only had one fixed phone and as more and more of the 50,000-tonne load was put onto trucks and taken away, he had to move further and further into the inside of the hangar – so he took an increasingly long time to answer the phone.” There was also the time when


truckloads of tomato paste, cooking oil, flour and other ingredients were moved to an army base in Europe to create what was effectively a giant pizza to feed thousands of refugees. Transport and formalities


were oſten difficult during the reconstruction phase a few years later. Shirley recalls an outsize load taking the light


bulbs off the roof of a road tunnel in Ploce. Oſten, the local police were rather bemused as to what were the regulations – if any - for outsize loads. Oſten, it was a matter of ringing an official office in the destination country to ensure that trucks were allowed through. Having a local driver able to deal with these problems was oſten invaluable. By


2000, John Shirley’s


turnover was 3.5 million and the company had a staff of six. More excitement followed


with the war in Kosovo. “We were still running trucks through Serbia when the bombing was going on, so they had to park up when the skies were clear and only move when it was cloudy and the aircraſt couldn’t see them,” Shirley recalls. “Of course, we didn’t tell the clients that their cargo was in danger of being bombed.” Even today, local economies


have yet to return to normal and there are still plenty of aid jobs from the UK, such as the Shoebox Appeal from the UK and Ireland in which large numbers of volunteers sacrifice their evenings to load thousands of small packages onto waiting trucks. Sadly, local customs officers


are not always as helpful as they might be, even with aid cargo. At the time of writing, John Shirley was trying to persuade one official to allow a shipper’s own container into the country duty free. Some border officials in Bosnia are easier to deal with than others, so it can be better to import via one part of the country and do the final declaration there before moving the cargo internally, rather than deal with the more awkward officials elsewhere. And the problems multiply


UK, so any space not taken up by the aid industry tends to be filled on the Continent. The company also moves other countries,


items to


particularly for embassies and the like, including the furniture for Paddy Ashdown when he was appointed High Representative in Bosnia. John Shirley is also mindful


of its responsibilities at home and has been one of the leading proponents of


‘green’ policies


John Shirley’s Dover HQ has a few tales to tell


in Kosovo, which is not a recognised state – usually,


it is


easier to go via Albania than through Serbia, Shirley says. There


are issues in other


rather different parts of


pockets of wealth there, as well as great poverty,” Shirley states. There is a certain amount of


the


region. A special environmental tax is payable in parts of Montenegro to help preserve the unique coastline, which includes the Tivat region, being billed as ‘the New Monaco’ – the ideal bolt-hole for Russian oligarchs. John Shirley has been delivering components for a new harbour wall. “So yes, there are also


commercial cargo – for example, tyre-maker Michelin has a big presence in Serbia having bought up local producers. Foodstuffs flow from the region into the UK, and there are also jobs like moving film sets – Croatia and some of the cities are popular locations – or even temporary housing for rock concerts up and down the Dalmatian coast. But there are still very few commercial exports out of the


in the UK freight industry. Famously, it does not allow company cars, its personnel getting around by bicycle or public transport. And when Mr Shirley needed to go to Tallinn to address a conference, he went by train and ferry; it doesn’t take as long as you might think. “According to the local council, we’ve saved 2½ tonnes of carbon in a year.” Other initiatives include a grass roof on the office and replacing oil boilers with wood pellet burning ones. The current office building has an interesting history, too, having once been the Dover Harbour station buildings, in the days when passengers


could


walk directly from boat train to waiting ship and vice-versa. The clock tower was built by Gilbert Scott senior, who designed St Pancras station and some of the country’s first phone boxes. It’s also believed to be the only station building that doubled as a navigation light.


Tibbett wins Metro business


Romanian contract logistics specialist, Tibbett Logistics – part of the UK-based Keswick Enterprises Group – has won a new multi-year intermodal logistics contract with Hong Kong- based Metro Group Buying HK, starting in February 2015. Metro Group Buying is the retailer’ s non-food purchasing organisation, responsible for


the international procurement of direct imports of sporting goods, footwear, clothing, kitchenware, office equipment, toys, electronics and more, serving over 2,200 stores in 32 countries. Tibbett Logistics’ will be receiving agent for MGB in Romania, and will also undertake road and rail inland haulage of inbound containers.


Issue 1 2015 - Freight Business Journal


///EASTERN EUROPE


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