NEWS\\\


Issue 2 2021 - Freight Business Journal


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Knop. In an interview


with FBJ, Knop explained that XStaff has been formed in the wake of the bankruptcy of Korean line Hanjin and the resulting reduction in choice in 2015. The aim was not to obtain the cheapest possible rates but to ensure that members got a good shipping service, he explained. Knop says that the cost per


container on the chartered vessel had certainly bettered what is currently available in


the spot market for liner shipping but the


pandemic and medical aid cargo is filling up the vessels, the situation won’t change,” he said. Knop can see the imbalance in the market continuing into at least May or June. He added that finding suitable


container vessels was not easy, even in the smaller sizes, but CUL’s expertise


had


issue was as much about service. XStaff members were being quoted $10,000 per container “but there was no guarantee that their cargo would be loaded,” he said. In normal times, a 20,000teu


regular liner vessel should be able to comfortably undercut the per- box cost on a 2,000teu one-off sailing, but these emphatically not normal times, he continued. “I think, as long as we have the


Fortune favours the asset owners, says P&O Ferrymasters chief


The current crises that have


beset the freight industry have favoured operators that own their own assets, says managing director of P&O Ferrymasters, Thorsten Runge. For a time, ‘digital forwarders’ and the like may have been all the rage, but companies that operate their own equipment have


fared better during the


current upheavals than others, he believes. “Owning your own assets did


go a bit out of fashion for a time,” he told FBJ in an interview, “but if you control those, you are more


in control of the flow of goods. We operate4,000 of our own containers and 2,500 of our own trailers, and customers have been turning to us.” The company has gained


market share as a result and financially, it has had one of its best years in several decades, he says. DP


World-owned Ferrymasters P&O has maintained


service levels through the Covid crisis, he continues: “We’ve been able to offer a really good service to customers, for which we’ve received many thanks.”


P&O Ferrymasters has also


coped well with the end of the Brexit transition period on 1 January. “What has helped us there is that we have a large number of staff based in the UK, as well as the other side of the Channel, and in August we started our own customs clearance department, so we’ve been able to do much of the work in-house.” He is confident that P&O


Ferrymasters will take in its stride the extension of UK customs checks to include imports from 1 July.


proved


valuable. Ship owners usually look for longer charters than single voyages. Getting suitable containers


had also proved to be difficult, but it had been possible to lease


continuing


P&O Ferrymasters is meanwhile to


develop its


intermodal services. It already operates its own trains from Italy, Romania, Czech Republic and Poland and plans are well in hand to start a new service from the Istanbul region to France, in partnership with parent company DP World and logistics partner Unico. In time, the rail network may spread even further afield; Runge notes that trains from China to Europe have become a popular alternative to ships in the current upheavals. He also sees the UK as a promising market,


because of,


rather than despite Brexit. The new customs rules have probably heightened the barriers to entry to


shippers’ own containers. Another successful tactic was to source new boxes being produced in China and take a one-way lease on them to Europe. CUL was also able to use its


contacts to get suitable handling deals at both ends of the route. Shipping lines have


been


positive about XStaff’s venture and appreciated the reasons for it. They did not see it as competition but rather an understandable reaction to an extraordinary situation, said Knop. XStaff had also been active


the market for some other logistics providers, but P&O Ferrymasters is keen to further expand its customs clearance expertise. Sister company P&O Ferries provides important links both to the new Tilbury2 terminal near London and Teesside, which could be the basis of new intermodal links between the Continent and the UK. Both UK ports have strong rail links to their respective hinterlands. The fact that both ports are


also included in the Chancellor’s Freeport plans announced in the Budget on 3 March adds further interest, given parent company’s extensive interests in nearby London Gateway. With a long term agreement also concluded with PD Ports in Teesside, “we’re not just


in other sectors of the transport market, including chartering aircraſt, trains from China to Europe and also trucks. Indeed a truck charter achieved a door- to-door timing of 14 days, very competitive with airfreight under current circumstances. However, congestion caused by driver Covid tests on the China-Kazakhstan border may have now increased journey times by this method. It is understood that other


forwarders have also chartered vessels on behalf of customers, including DSV and Bollore.


looking at ports as places to berth ships, but as an integral part of the supply chain,” says Runge. The next stage of Runge’s plan


for the company is to expand its portfolio of logistics and supply chain products and help P&O Ferrymasters to embed itself further into its customers’ supply chains. He is in the process of building


up a fully-dedicated


logistics development team to accelerate the company’s digital transformation. At the same time the


commercial team is being restructured to focus on the needs of customers. Some new recruits will be taken


on for both functions, across the company’s 14 country network.


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