he land bridge with Britain
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CE the earliest days of roand lift-on/off the ferry 'ices 'between Britain and sod have been building up.
✓ operators can choose • a number of shipping panies on a multiplicity of es. They can reach beyond UK to Gothenburg, BreL, Rotterdam, Antwerp, enhagen, Malmo, Aarhus, nse and Le Havre.
arvices between the Relic and the UK are, how., under-utilised. Vessels are not always full and are capable of more sailings if the demand should arise.
B & I Lines, who operate three vessels, one container ship and two ro-ro, make one run each vessel per day for most of the year. But the vessels are capable of turning round faster and completing three trips in 24 hours, I was told. However, so light is the traffic that operators using the service are guaranteed customs clearance inside three hours at Dublin.
B & I operate 150 vehicles of their own in the UK, picking up and delivering containers and semi-trailers from hauliers and warehouses. In addition, they use 50 British sub contractors booked through their Liverpool office, According to B & I the trend in Irish traffic is towards unaccompanied trailers. This supports the claims of Irish operators that their traffic is being creamed off by British oper ators sending their loaded trailers over for return loads. The balance last month was 60 to 40 in favour of unaccompanied traffic. A disturbing statistic for Irishmen.