NEWS\\\


Issue 3 2020 - Freight Business Journal


7


>> 6


funct i oning, IRU is calling on governments


and authorities, banks and financial institutions to take temporary actions to help ease the burden on operators. Companies should


implement more rigorous driver health and safety standards for loading and unloading goods, particularly in quarantine areas, for example. They must also ensure traceability in recording and maintaining driver and worker movements. Governments


should also


ease driving and rest time rules for critical goods such as food and medical supplies and enable drivers to leave affected regions or quarantine zones as quickly as possible and return home. They must also lift restrictions to ensure deliveries can take place at safer times, in the night for example. Financial institutions should


ease loan and mortgage repayment terms especially for large vehicle loans, and VAT and tax payment deadlines. Authorities should remove


or reduce tolls and road user charges


for trucks and set


up support programmes for temporarily unemployed road transport workers.


Palletways offers better French connection News Roundup


Palletways says its members will gain much-improved access to the French market, thanks to a new partnership with Ziegler France. The French arm of the Belgian-headquarter logistics operator has over 60 branches across the country, including two main hubs in Paris and the central city of Clermont Ferrand, covering largely domestic and international distribution. Michael Sterk, chief


commercial officer for the Palletways Group, said: “The French logistic sector is dominated by multinationals and we were determined to secure a single partner to support our members to access the market. France is an extremely important country to our operation given our main markets of Iberia, Italy,


The first intermodal transport using TIR from India to Afghanistan via Chabahar port in Iran was completed in early March, reports the International Road Transport Union (IRU). Carrying factory line components, the operation took seven days in total - five by sea and two by road from Chabahar port in Iran to the final destination in Afghanistan – 3-4 days less than the traditional route from Bandar Abbas port. It was also the first TIR operation started from India and by an Indian TIR carnet holder. Chabahar is the only Iranian port with direct access to the Indian Ocean and the operation is based on the Chabahar transit agreement signed between India and Iran.


Germany, the Benelux and the UK all are neighbouring countries.” Francis Castelin, general


manager at Ziegler France, added: “Ziegler France has a proven track record in planning, designing and constructing competitive worldwide networks to transport, store and handle goods reliably by land, sea and air. We understand regional conditions


and give individual support to our customers to ensure they operate successfully. There are many synergies between Palletways and Ziegler such as a joint commitment to delivering service excellence and continually improving transit times; we and our partners are looking forward to fully integrating ourselves within Palletways’ network.”


Multimodal postponed to November


The Multimodal exhibition and conference at the Birmingham NEC is to be rescheduled from mid-June to 4-6 November, due to the corona virus outbreak. Bookings for stands and


sponsorship will be automatically transferred to the new dates.


Visitor registration will be automatically transferred to the new date and the plan is to keep the speaker programme largely unchanged. Rob Jervis, portfolio director at


organisers, Clarion Events said: “I suspect that this announcement


won’t be a great surprise. Despite strong support from our stakeholders, the increasing level of uncertainty, travel bans and individual concerns mean that we would not be able to deliver the show that we expected to deliver.”


Maersk, Ruscon and Transcontainer have launched an intermodal container service between the seaport of Novorossiysk and Vorsino dry port outside Moscow. Customers can choose between an end-to-end solution, where containers are delivered by Maersk directly to their premises, and self- pickup from Vorsino inland container terminal. Transit time from Novorossiysk port to destination is 50 hours. Maersk added that its new cold store in St. Petersburg is now operational. It has a capacity of over 40 000 pallets in three chambers and uses CO2 cooling, making it the largest commercial cold store in Russia using the new technology. Over the next months, as part of its Cold Chain Management product.


Channel Tunnel operator Getlink introduced part-time working for 2,339 of its French employees from 1 April and said it was working on an equivalent scheme for British employees. The decision reflects the noticeable drop in passengers compared to the relatively resilient performance of van and truck traffic. As a measure of solidarity, Jacques Gounon has requested that his own salary be reduced. The Board will not propose making a dividend payment at its annual general meeting this year.


Road & Rail


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