PORT DEVELOPMENT
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have a container full of Christmas crack- may become more apparent than real. HCs including 45fts, but it has to use low report commissioned by PDP from Net-
ers in January,” he said. Only about 1% of Teesport’s inland platform wagons and the link via the Tees work Rail suggests that the link could be
He took the decision to transfer im- intermodal distribution is by rail, but the Valley (through Eaglescliffe and South upgraded to W10 (ie 9ft 6in HCs on stand-
ports to Teesport, which meant an extra long term aim is to build it to 20%, as a Darlington) to the ECML also has speed ard 940mm high 60ft flats) for just £3.5M.
two days before landing, but delivery to key component of NGCT. Container restrictions and other bottlenecks. Ideally, PDP would like W12 gauge (esti-
the DC was still quicker and more reli- flow over NGCT provides the “aggrega- “The new service to Scotland is good mated at another 10% on cost) to cater for
able, and “missed slots” became a prob- tion” that is vital if PDP is to change ac- news, but is very much an intermediate swap bodies, as that will add a rail element to
lem of the past, while the savings on road cepted thinking about the optimum situation,” said Pellew. “We still need the portcentric logistics. Costings for the ECML
transport costs due to fewer miles and length of a journey by rail for freight. overall and full rail gauge enhancement to Scotland and to Yorkshire/Midlands are in
quicker turnaround more than out- Teesport’s main distribution areas are for both the Teesport spur to the East the £10-20M and £40M ranges respectively,
weighed the cost of the additional con- Leeds (70 miles), Newcastle (40 miles), Coast Main line and also for the ECML with another £40M for the transpennine
tainer handlings. Smith saw that Teesport Manchester (120 miles) and the Central in either direction north through New- route to the North West, which PDP hopes
was a good spot from which to offer a belt of Scotland (120-150 miles) - all castle and into Scotland as well as south will follow later.
“one stop shop” for supply chain serv- below the generally accepted economic to Yorkshire and the Midlands.” (At the Plans have not moved ahead, because
ices, but as no-one could be found to do thresholds for intermodal rail. Further- moment the Tees Valley link has no south- the government has already allocated its
it he decided to offer them himself. more, access to the port is currently via a ward connection to the ECML). £11B major transport projects budget for
Focus on trucking costs
As this picture shows, the low bed wagons
W8 rail structure gauge. Most Scottish deepsea exports are 2007-14. PDP has been strongly critical
needed to provide 9ft and 9ft 6in HC clearance
DB Schenker (ex-EWS) has started a feedered over Grangemouth or railed to of what it sees as continuing “southern
In the current downturn, congestion at on some port access lines waste paylength and daily train linking Teesport with Mossend Southampton. Obviously PDP wants to bias” in the budget priorities and over-
southern ports has eased considerably, but increase the deadload of any given train and Grangemouth that caters for 9ft 6in target some of this traffic for Teesport. A reliance on a “failed model.” a74
Smith makes the point that the dramatic
fall in freight rates has thrown into sharp
relief the high cost of inland transport and
businesses are looking to slash transport
costs across the board.
As noted, Tesco, the UK’s largest re-
tailer, is coming to Teesport with
portcentric thinking very much in mind.
“We need to increase our storage capac-
ity to deal with the increased levels of
imported containerised goods and build-
ing a storage facility at the port where it
is imported removes the need to move
stock from the port of import to a stor-
age facility inland,” said the company’s
corporate affairs manager Juliette Bishop.
“As well as reducing the double han-
dling of imported stock, this will help
reduce the road miles that products travel,
which is better for the environment.”
No-one is claiming that devanning
containers in ports and reloading their
Better ways to
contents to trailers or rail wagons is a new
idea. There are all kinds of reasons - on-
dock or near-dock CFS, deconsolidation
of LCL/part-loads, restuffing to higher
lift it, load it, grab it,
capacity domestic containers to obtain
better load factors (eg from 40ft ISO con-
tainers to 48ft/53ft “domcons” in the US),
lack of container transport equipment or
infrastructure (“roadlessness”), etc.
stack it, rotate it, tip
Quantum leap?
It is probably going too far to talk now
about a “paradigm shift,” as that would it, push it, pull it,
involve a revolution in shipping (cf giant
warehouses that are floated on and off
ships). All the same, what marks
“portcentric” initiatives, in the UK con-
fix it........
text at least, is their sheer scale and the
new importance attached to landing con-
tainers closer to the market, in order to
avoid container trucking miles and the
associated costs of container logistics.
Tesco is investing no less than £100M
in its new facility at Teesport - which has
plenty of space for similar developments
- and has taken a lease in excess of 100
years. No-one has done this on such a
scale in the UK. It is known that ASDA/
Walmart will have an import centre at
London Gateway to supply stores in South
East England and the Midlands, and it
would be a surprise if Tesco and other
major importers and retailers were not
thinking on similar lines.
Weak rail leg
Reducing road miles sounds fine, but
if road trailers replace container rail
transport then the “green dividend”
Bulmers crisis
........Specialised handling solutions from Cooper SH
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Teesport and Felixstowe, may bring – And special needs require specialised handling.
much-needed container traffic to the
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The sharp downturn in the British probably the only Company that sees specialised handling as a core business activity – not only with the products we sell but our skill and ability to
economy has obviously affected business tailor those standard products around a customer’s exact needs – without compromise.
and, at the time of writing, container
haulier Bulmers Logistics, which is based The extensive range of equipment we offer allows Cooper SH to adopt a consultative approach thus finding the solution that best suits the customer
in Teesport, has gone into “prepack” ad- – not the supplier.
ministration. A new company, Bulmers
Transport, formed by the previous man- The range covers diesel forklifts 6 to 60 tonnes, masted container handlers, reach stackers, sideloaders 3 to 45 tonnes (Electric 3 to 7,5 tonnes)
agement team, has taken over. as well as a complete range of terminal, distribution and RoRo tractors. This comprehensive range is fully supported by Cooper SH dedicated field
Bulmers Logistics had been under technicians providing specialised backup.
pressure for some time and had already
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now going, with the closure of the Hull
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Transport says that it will continue to
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serve all current locations from its Mid-
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SPECIALISED HANDLING
a74
January 2009 21
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