A review of some smaller items regarding freight and logistics this week starts with the news that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has been raising awareness regarding the safety of Unit Load Devices (ULDs) as carried on aircraft. In 2016 IATA launched its ULD Safety Campaign pointing out that these are actually aircraft parts, subject to safety and airworthiness requirements and requiring correct handling. Now a review of the Campaign, which has seen a series of local workshops across Asia, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East, has shown how successful the process has proved.
The workshops help promote the importance of the critical relationship between safe ULD operations and flight safety as well as clarifying safety responsibilities across parties involved at a local level. In turn IATA has been able to understand specific challenges as Regulators, Airlines, Airport Authorities, Industry Associations, Ground Service Providers, Freight Forwarders/ Cargo Agents, etc. gather together to look the 900,000 ULDs in use which represent a replacement cost of over $1 billion.
US – PUERTO RICO – CARIBBEAN – Having extended its services between the Dominican Republic and the US in the middle of May, Crowley Maritime has launched a new feeder service connecting San Juan, Puerto Rico; Rio Haina in the Dominican Republic and St. Croix and St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. With the new service, vessels depart Rio Haina on Sundays and arrive in San Juan on Tuesdays.
After departure on Thursdays, cargo arrives in St. Thomas and St. Croix on Fridays, before the vessel moves to the Dominican Republic again for Sunday operations. Customers can ship cargo in all types of equipment, including 20- and 40-foot refrigerated reefer and dry containers, 45-foot by 102-inch dry containers and flat racks.
UK – BELGIUM – A new short-sea container service has been launched this week between London Thamesport and Ghent. The new service is operated by I-Motion Shipping, an associate of Interface Terminal Ghent (ITG), and provides three sailings per week between the Kent and Belgian ports, and is a parallel service to the thrice a week Hull port call we reported in May.
UK – Road haulage and logistics group Wincanton, has published its preliminary financial report to the year ending 31 March 2018. The company says new business wins, partnership expansions and an enhanced eFulfilment proposition have helped it deliver revenue growth of 4.8%, the highest growth rate in a decade. Full details can be seen HERE.
Staying with Wincanton, the handover by Daimler Trucks of the new FUSO eCanter model to selected companies included five for the firm which it says makes it the first UK 3PL to introduce production-level electric vehicles to its fleet. Wincanton will initially deploy the 7.5 tonne vehicles on a trial for inner city logistics, where the challenges of emissions, noise and congestion are greatest. The ambition for the business is for the vehicles to be rolled out as part of its home delivery fleet.
UK – TURKEY – This week saw P&O Ferrymasters open its first office in Istanbul. This means that the company’s customers in Western and Eastern Europe will be able to access markets in Central Asia and the Middle East via daily departures to and from Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Herman Braam, P&O Ferrymasters’ Director of Freight Management, said:
“Many of our customers have moved their centres of production to Eastern Europe, delivering to internal local markets in the Balkans, Turkey, Iran, Georgia and Kazakhstan. We are focused on supporting these new trade lanes, first with road transportation solutions and in future with the introduction of Intermodal assets such as Huckepack trailers on our rail services.”
FINLAND – UK – WORLDWIDE – Evac, which provides integrated waste, wastewater, and water management systems for the marine, offshore, and building industries, is to acquire UK based Cathelco, a global manufacturer of equipment for ships and offshore installations. Cathelco customers include Evac’s current marine and offshore customer groups, including ship owners, shipyards, fleet managers, rig owners and operators, oil companies, navies, and designers.
Evac says the acquisition gives it the opportunity to further expand its cleantech solution portfolio to its customers with the addition of new systems, while also opening up new business opportunities in terms of ballast water treatment systems. It will extend Evac’s offering in three main areas: pipework anti-fouling systems, hull corrosion protection systems and ballast water treatment systems, which remove organisms and pathogens from ballast water using UV and filtration technologies.
UK – Avenida Home, an independently-owned company that produces a collection of handmade placemats, drinks coasters, table mats and other homeware items, has appointed Walker Logistics to manage its UK supply chain. Walker will store some 400 SKUs within a consolidated area and pick, pack and dispatch replenishment stock to Avenida’s growing list of retail stockists, which includes Liberty of London, across the UK and to parts of Europe. All the company’s products are created in its studio in Bath and William Walker, sales director of Walker Logistics said his firm was delighted to be working with them.
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Source: Handy Shipping Guide
