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www.bifa.org Ian Matheson, from Impress Communications, reviews some recent news that might impact on Members’ business


when there were far higher levels of UK-EU unaccompanied cargo and less than 50% of UK-Europe trade went through the Dover Strait.


European available road freight capacity on the spot market dipped sharply in September, compared with the same month last year, falling by almost 14%, according to the latest Transport Market Monitor, published by the cloud-based logistics software provider Transporeon and its subsidiary Tim Consult.


IN THE AIR Air freight figures produced for September by IATA showed that global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometres, was 8% below previous-year levels in September (-9.9% for international operations). That is an improvement from the 12.1% year-on-year drop recorded in August.


Warning issued over people smugglers


ON THE OCEAN The International Transport Intermediaries Club (ITIC ), managed by Thomas Miller, has repeated its warnings for ship and port agent members to be aware of approaches from people traffickers attempting to smuggle illegal immigrants via the maritime route.


November saw container line surcharges piling in as global supply chains continued to shudder from an extraordinary shortage of available 40 ft containers, in no small part down to the booming Far East-Europe and transpacific trade lanes.


In its Review of Maritime Trade 2020, UNCTAD states the volume of international maritime trade will fall by 4.1% in 2020, recovering next year to expand by 4.8%. It also predicts that the regionalisation of


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trade will likely accelerate, featuring an element of shortened supply chains through near-shoring or re- shoring of production.


GOING OVERLAND The Department for Transport in November proposed a limited trial of a higher, 48-tonne weight limit for trucks in intermodal operations. It added that the trucks would have to have six axles and the trial would be limited to specific operators, with consultations ongoing until January 2021.


Freight traffic through the Channel Tunnel in October was at pre-Covid levels with 142,542 trucks carried. However, it was down 7% compared with the record traffic of October 2019, which benefited from a stockpiling effect due to Brexit then being expected on 31 October 2019.


The M6toll has announced that tolls for vans and trucks will be maintained at 2019 levels.


Eurotunnel Le Shuttle Freight is introducing a secure and digitised service for freight customers called the Eurotunnel Border Pass, which shares information needed for border crossings between the transporter and Eurotunnel, and then between Eurotunnel and the border authorities. It will enable drivers to stay in their cab and not have to present any documents on arriving at the border.


Discussions at Lloyd’s Loading List’s ‘Brexit and Beyond’ webinar revealed that a combination of Brexit and COVID-19 has seen cargo owners and carriers reverting to a UK-Europe freight model similar to that seen prior to the foundation of the single market,


TIACA is calling for the use of the dynamic load factor methodology as the industry standard for measuring the utilisation of air cargo capacity. Introduced in 2019 by CLIVE Data Services, this methodology measures how full an aircraft is by considering both freight volume and weight, with both CLIVE and TIACA agreeing that traditional weight-based load factors are “misleading” and paint an unnecessarily negative image of the airfreight industry.


ON THE QUAYSIDE Chris Lewis has come out of retirement and returned to Felixstowe as chief executive of Hutchison Ports UK at a time when Britain’s largest container port has been struggling to cope with a surge in volumes.


Teesport has welcomed the first arrival of a new weekly Containerships service from Klaipeda, Lithuania, launched in October. It provides additional capacity for shippers moving containerised cargo into the UK with just a four-day turnaround between the Baltic and Teesport.


December 2020


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