MALTA\\\


Express Trailers, one of Malta’s largest road operators, has strengthened its position in the Midlands with the appointment of Sheldon & Clayton as its local agent. The new partner will handle all Express’ collections and deliveries in the region and will help consolidate the Maltese operator’s groupage network in the UK. Express already works with EUF in the London area and Denholm in Manchester, so it has the country well covered, considers head of sales and business development, David Fleri Soler. “Having Sheldon & Clayton


represent us in the Midlands will give us faster transit times and better rates,” Soler explains. He points out, also, that the new partner has a depot in Aberdeen, which will help boost oil and gas business, which is becoming increasingly important to both Express Trailers itself and Malta generally. Meanwhile, Express Trailers


is doing increasing amounts of third party warehousing and distribution services. “We’re bringing in a lot of goods from the Far East or elsewhere and distributing them to Europe on our trailer services, which helps with the imbalance of trade between Europe and Malta. It also gets goods into Europe faster than would be possible on direct


sea services, in many cases – as well as the many tax advantages that Malta can offer.” For example, he says, Egypt is


only two days’ sailing from Malta Freeport, from where goods can be got to anywhere in Europe, customs cleared and delivered, in a maximum of five days. All- water


shipping services from


Egypt to north European ports alone take a minimum of a week, and there is the time for customs clearance and final delivery to add on top. Moreover, the new container shipping alliances that now serve Malta Freeport (2M and Ocean3) have slashed sailing times – Singapore to Malta takes as little as 14 days, for example, “which really is quite unbeatable.” The range of ports served has also greatly expanded, says Fleri Soler.


Egypt is an interesting market,


he adds. It shares many of the advantages of Turkey, being outside the EU with a large workforce and manufacturing base.


It perhaps hasn’t been


considered as much as it might be because it lacks direct road links with Europe, but the sea journey via Malta is pretty quick. A small amount of business


is also trickling across to Libya, mostly in containers, though there are some heſty war risk surcharges to pay. “People still need to eat, so there is still a


Issue 4 2015 - Freight Business Journal


23 Midlands presence for Malta trailer giant


guarantee and release them for distribution into Europe the minute the patent expires. (There is frequently a race between generic manufacturers to get their products onto the shelves first in this situation.) Malta’s pharma manufacturers


certain amount of traffic going there.” The country used to be a good source of business for groupage cargo from the Far East on Express’ ocean groupage services into Malta. Apart


from a revival of


Libya, what would help Malta’s transhipment business to thrive even more, Fleri Soler considers, would be reduced port and handling costs on Malta. Transhipment cargoes have to bear the cost of being unloaded in the Freeport and, aſter they have been devanned and transferred to road trailers, there is a further charge for loading onto a ferry. More frequent ferry services to continental Europe would also help, he says, although Grimaldi does offer a good service and doesn’t over-exploit its situation as the only freight ro ro link to the European mainland. Costs of operating trailers into Europe have also risen steadily,


with the UK’s HGV levy, shipping line emissions charges and, now, possibly, minimum wages rules for drivers transiting Germany and France. Healthcare is one of Express


Trailers’ – and Malta’s – biggest customers. While all operators in the sector have to be GDP (Good Distribution Practice)-certified these days, Express Trailers has taken the process a stage further by obtaining licences that allow the company to actually release medicines for local distribution. Soler explains: “It allows us to


put our own warehouse address on the importer’s licence and the importer can use us for back-up storage if need be; essentially, it allows us to do third party logistics and warehousing for the pharmaceutical industry.” Its certification also allows


Express Trailers to store generic versions of medicines that are still under patent in Malta under


are allowed under the patent legislation’s Bolar Exemption to carry out clinical trials and commercial testing of patented medicines – perhaps to improve them or produce a cheaper generic version – before the patent has actually expired and then get them into the markets of Europe as soon as it does. It is this that has led to the proliferation of global pharma companies in Malta. Along with pharma, white and


‘green’ (electrical and electronic) goods are another growing area for Express Trailers. The company has recently built a new 7,500sq m warehouse opposite its existing depot in Luqa near Malta airport to cater for the business. “It’s not just 3PL work, it’s a managed warehouse,” explains Fleri Soler. “We continually update the client’s own stock through sophisticated systems.” Express already has


Shiplowcost, an e-commerce fulfilment service for internet shoppers on Malta – it allows the customer to quote Express’s UK


depot as the delivery address and Express manages the delivery from there to Malta - but, says Soler, “what we are now doing is trying to encourage e-commerce fulfilment operations to set up in Malta, using the island as a fulfilment hub for the whole of Europe.” There have been small but encouraging developments in this direction, he says. One advantage that Express


Trailers has, he adds, is that it is one of the few forwarders on Malta that is allowed to operate its own customs bond, which it has done since the island joined the European Union over ten years ago. “We can bring goods into our customs warehouse and release them into free circulation by paying the duty or we can send them under a T1 document to Switzerland or other non-EU countries as required.” The pharma companies are


also one of the main driving forces behind Express Trailers’ upgrade of its IT systems. New legislation due to come into force in 2018 will require individual packets of medicines to be uniquely identified, as part of the drive to stamp out counterfeit medicines in


Europe. While technically


possible, it will require even more computer power – along with all the other general requirements such as proofs of delivery and tracking and tracing.


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