28


Issue 5 2020 - Freight Business Journal Keeping it quiet on the Clyde


The river is possibly one of the Glasgow region’s best-kept secrets, says Andrew Hemphill, port director for Peel Ports Clydeport. These days, there is growing


interest in what is oſten referred to as port-centric logistics, which essentially means bringing ships as close to the point of consumption – or manufacturing – as possible. Many cities in the UK have, or have had ports, of course, but oſten those ports have become outmoded as ships have increased in draſt and length and have had to find new lives as waterfront residential or leisure facilities. King George V Dock on the river


Clyde however, can handle quite large Panamax vessels but at the same time is only four miles from Glasgow city centre. “It’s a hidden asset,” says Hemphill. “It handles over a million tonnes of cargo a year, but not everyone realises that ships still come to Glasgow, or that it has a busy port.” The cargoes handled by KGV quite varied and include


are


anything from wind turbines, steel and various bulks including road salt, along with the largest share of cement and animal feed imports on the West Coast of Scotland. It also imports raw materials for glassmaking – sand and soda ash – which are turned into bottles for the local drinks manufacturers. Owner Peel Ports has just


acquired more land adjacent to the port and a new recycled metal export facility should be open by Christmas. “Scotland is fast catching up with port centric logistics,” Hemphill explains. “People are always looking at how to save costs and this is one way of doing that.” As a multi-port owner and


operator on the Clyde, Peel Ports can also offer its customers a one-stop shop. Ship handling, stevedoring, warehousing and logistics can all be


through a single contact with the Peel Ports marketing team. Other Clyde facilities within the Peel Ports stable include


Ardrossan. Discussions are ongoing on reconfiguring the berth and designs for a larger terminal for the Aran island ferry, operated by Calmac. This £30m development will allow a bigger ferry to be deployed on the growing trade to the island, which includes freight as well as cars and passengers. In years gone by, Ardrossan


was an important Irish Sea port, handling P&O Ferries services which however were later moved to Troon and ultimately Cairnryan. But perhaps, with the interest in reducing road miles, this business could one day return, given Ardrossan’s closeness to central Scotland. Ardrossan has always been a


arranged


ferry port. Hunterston, another location in the Peel Ports stable, is having to reinvent itself. The port was the gateway for imported iron ore and coal but when the coal fired power stations closed that leſt one of the country’s deepest-water ports looking for a new role. Peel


A crisis can be the best of times, says new Bullet Express MD


John McKail had a baptism of fire in his new role at central Scotland logistics company Bullet Express. He joined the company as MD on 9 March, just as the Covid crisis broke. (David McCutcheon and business partner Gary Smith have assumed executive roles as joint chief executives, focused on strategic developments for the business.) The virus’s attack on the global


economy quickly squashed any immediate plans for rapid growth and the company concentrated on getting itself, and more importantly, its customers and staff, through what is arguably the most difficult trading period since World War II. But: “In a strange way it was


a good thing, because the crisis probably drew me much closer to the detail of the business,” says McKail. “I rapidly became intimate with every aspect, including really getting to know my new team. We leſt no stone unturned, to ensure we adapted to and survived this unprecedented situation.” McKail joined Bullet Express


aſter working for freight forwarder Damco in the Netherlands for six years, followed by a spell at the parent group AP Moller Maersk’s head office in Copenhagen, helping to reorganise the multinational shipping and freight group. Before


Damco, he was European director at Palletforce where he helped grow the cross-border business. Several other positives came


out of the Covid situation, he adds: “Unlike many other unfortunate businesses out there, our wheels kept rolling. From the start of the lock-down, we have managed more than 150,000 pallets and maintained a clean record throughout, with no confirmed cases of COVID-19 throughout our workforce.” This was a vindication of Bullet Express vigorous hygiene and social distancing policies - PPE, cleaning regimes and staff rotations. All physical operations were adapted, including warehouses, driver rules, walkways, signage and vehicle marshalling. He plays tribute to the dedication the company’s


of staff, drivers


and management - “There was a real feeling of everyone being in it together. Now, there is a real feeling of vibrancy about the business, that we’re coming out of it stronger than before.”Bullet Express’s diverse customer base certainly helped in this respect along with the fact that it offers a wide portfolio of end-to- end services covering every aspect of the supply chain. The overnight business,


predominantly the work for the Pallex network, is now getting back


to full strength. In addition, grocery retail scheduled services remained strong even during the lockdown. Deliveries of home gym and DIY material were another plus. International business is a big


growth area for Bullet Express; the company has strong partners in the US, China and India. Freight forwarding – air, sea and, now, rail - are also recovering well now, says McKail. He explains: “We handle freight of all kinds, and there’s a healthy balance of export and import. We do quite a bit of airfreight


for some key sectors


including the engineering and oil and gas industries.” Finding airfreight capacity


was a real challenge as airlines abandoned scheduled passenger services, but Bullet Express has some excellent overseas service partners who helped find seemingly impossible to get airfreight space during the crisis. Now, as oſten the case with the airfreight market, things are moving in the opposite direction and finding capacity at a reasonable price is the new challenge in a situation that is changing from day to day. Bullet Express has also secured


space on a rail service from China to the UK on behalf of an e-commerce client. This is cheaper


Ports has had several promising discussions with companies in the energy sector and Hemphill believes that Hunterston will once again come into its own again. It is also would be an ideal base for marine support operations, points out Hemphill. The rail-linked port offers a


minimum draſt of no less than 25 metres, 440 metres of quayside and over 200 acres of brownfield land suitable for laying down large structures, building a manufacturing facility or other activities. Peel Ports is also looking for a


new partner to take things forward at the adjacent Marine Yard site at Hunterston. This area would, for example, be suitable for handling the vast, 80 metre-diameter bases of offshore wind turbines, one of the few locations in the region that could accommodate them. The Marine Yard also includes a dry dock. Another twin facility upriver


near Greenock operated by Peel Ports on the Clyde is Inchgreen and its adjacent dry dock. The latter was fully occupied by marine


///SCOTLAND


construction firms over the past year and another customer is waiting to move in as soon as the Covid restrictions permit. Inchgreen Dry Dock, one of the


largest facilities in the UK at 305 metres long and 45m wide, allows large structures to be built up and then floated out to wherever they are needed – much easier and safer than building them in situ, in the water. The technique has already been used at previously to build a caisson for Ullapool as well as the new 200m cruise berth terminal for Peel Ports’ Greenock dedicated cruise berth. There have even been enquiries


for ship building, once the region’s lifeblood but an activity that has largely deserted the Clyde. Meanwhile,


there are plenty


projects in marine construction, marine support services and or wind turbines to keep Inchgreen busy well into the future. The new Greenock cruise


terminal will be ready at the end of July though when the first cruise ships will be allowed to use it in this Covid-stricken season is another matter. However, it will play an


important role in removing cruise ships from Greenock container berths and allowing further expansion of the box business. Container volumes are


naturally down a little, says Hemphill, but the port is poised for further growth when restrictions are liſted. Port centric logistics is also a growing and important business for Greenock, with containers being devanned and onward distribution dealt with in port rather than further afield. The port meanwhile continues


to handle regular container services to and from Antwerp, Le Havre, Southampton, Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast and Bilbao operated variously by Containerships, MSC, BG Freight Line and Express. Trade is still continuing – people still need to eat and consume other essentials – but not all Scotland’s whisky producers are currently operating, even if there were consumers around the world able and willing to buy their products. But once things get back to normal, stocks will need to be rebuilt and trade can be expected to rapidly recover.


Rail is key to cutting carbon, says report


The Transform Scotland transport alliance and Rail Freight Group (RFG) have published a joint proposal for a National Low-Carbon Freight Network in response to


the Scottish Government’s


consultation on the new National Planning Framework. The two


groups said that


transfer of freight from road to rail can offer a quick win in cutting


than airfreight but, at around 16 days door to door, quicker than seafreight and a marketing campaign has been


CO2 emissions and there are also significant benefits for people, places and inclusive growth. Development


of a National


Low-Carbon Freight Network will depend on early electrification of the routes from Central Scotland to Aberdeen and Inverness – speeding up transits, improving route capacity and further cutting carbon emissions compared to


launched


to present the service to more potential customers. Pan-European business is also


an important element of the Bullet’s service portfolio, with a mix of own groupage and Pallex European network business. For seafreight, Bullet Express


has developed an online shipping service. The system can make the booking, lodge documentation and track the consignment, while offering extended credit terms to those customers that need them. While some human touch points are still needed, “I think this is the way that shipping is going; the system allows far more bookings to be made in a day than is possible with manual processes. People these days want to plug and play,” is McKail’s opinion. The forwarding business


also helps feed Bullet Express’s warehousing operations, which are going from strength to strength. The company has a multi-user site at Baillieston, east of Glasgow, and a ‘deep storage’ facility at Glespin off the M74 to the south of the city. Both sites are “absolutely booming” and handling record numbers, says McKail. Another useful adjunct to


the warehouse and seafreight business is container destuffing, which can be carried out securely and out of the weather at Baillieston. The company has an additional


piece of land adjacent to its existing Baillieston site for which planning permission is being sought to develop close on an additional 180,000sq ſt, or 15,000 pallet spaces. “There is a real shortage of


quality warehouse


space in Scotland,” says McKail, “so we are very fortunate to have that.” Warehousing is an important


road haulage. There must also be investment in ensuring that the electricity supply will be able to meet the demand. Enhancement of route and train


capacity and capability (including loading gauge) to secure cost- effective rail freight operations connecting Central Scotland with key ports and terminals across the country will also be needed.


part of the Bullet Express service, which is focused on the complete, end to end supply chain, and which has brought “a whole new type of customer” to the business”. Other specialised services


offered by Bullet Express is an in-night delivery service to retail stores, and a domestic road groupage service from Scotland to North-east England, operated on behalf of a customer, which is designed to reduce the handling of a high-value commodity. For the future, McKail is


focussed on growing the business and building on the 50% increase achieved in the last four years. While standing still would in itself be a major achievement in the supremely tough market in 2020, he is determined to push forward, he is convinced that the company will be on the upward track again before long. “Bullet Express is a growth business,” he says, “and I’m determined to keep it that way.”


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  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32