Some of the UK’s fastest-growing value retailers have joined major port operator Peel Ports Group in calling for a new UK port of entry strategy.
Decrease lead times
According to Peels Ports, this strategy aims to decrease lead times, save costs, and reduce carbon emissions.
Major discount businesses, including Home Bargains owner TJ Morris, have called for shipping lines to implement a new North/South, two-port UK strategy that would see them use both northern and southern ports to supply deep-sea containerised freight.
Several issues
This creates several issues, including limited rail and HGV driver capacity, congested highways, cargo delays, poor landside operations, and increased pollution from long, unneeded road travels.
New approach
The new approach was discussed during a British Retail Consortium webinar jointly hosted by Peel Ports Group, with the retail leaders claiming changing the current outdated model would enhance the effectiveness of the country’s retail supply chain.
The panel urged shipping companies, the government, and port operators to collaborate to bring a two-port plan to reality.
Stephen Carr, Group Commercial Director at Peel Ports Group, said: “A North-South, two-port UK strategy could address many of the country’s logistics challenges, transforming and modernising supply chains for retailers and other cargo owners.”
“There’s a high level of support from the retail sector, driven by a need to better optimise the flow of seaborne cargo to enable much greater landside efficiencies. If we’re to see a supply chain which works with retailers, not against them, then it makes little sense to rely on the current status-quo – we need to utilise the ports of entry in the north, and across the whole country.”
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Source : Port technology
