he port of Goole in East Yorkshire is almost 50
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miles from the coast; a fact that is not lost on Pal Line UK, the British arm of Paltrans (which in turn is part of one of the biggest shipping lines in Sweden, thanks to its ownership by BSA Group). The company uses Goole's location to point out that thousands of tonnes of cargo am off the roads for a greater distance than if they went through the coastal ports.
Compared with the fleets operated by some hauliers hand-in-glove with RORO ferry lines, the nine-truck Pal Line operation might seem small, but the fleet (all Scania 124 420 mid-lift 6x2s) runs with a variety of triaxle trailers, and the firm has seized the 44-tonne limit with both hands.
it's what we have been waiting for," says transport manager Mervyn Hornsby "There are two sailings per week between Goole and Sweden, with the majority of the loads being containerised break-bulk cargoes, although we have a reasonable amount of noncontainerised loads such as timber and steel; the latter mainly in plate form or small coils in cradles.
"Although we are the UK arm and deliver or pick up around the UK mainland we run into Ireland as well, Guinness • • 4/11, is a large customer and we have several profiling companies in Ireland taking the coils of steel from Sweden too," Hornsby explains.
While most hauliers strive for a steady work schedule, relying on backloads and local work to fill in, Pal Line's operation has to be designed around two peaks a week. One ferry arrives on Sunday and leaves Goole on the Monday morning; the other arrives on Wednesday and departs in the early hours of Friday morning with a fourday crossing time. So how does the company even out its work load?
"The peaks are not so steep," says Hornsby. As with the container storage here, we will be picking up and tipping into Goole for three days before the sailing, so the whole workload goes up and down through the week, But the two sailings
also give us one distinct
advantage. Although severe weather will affect a sailing, generally, due to tides, when the ship is going to leave, that's it; it doesn't wait a moment longer. That gives us a just-in-time capability which is useful on perishables and foodstuffs."
Being right on the waterfront, so to speak, Pal Line has a very clear picture of the UK's import/export imbalance. "As a guide, for every vessel that brings 3,500-4,000 tonnes into Goole, it will take in the order of 2,000-2,500 tonnes back, so you see it's 1,000-1,500 tonnes down, per sailing," Hornsby points out There are some anomalies however" he adds. "Although, as you'd expect, we don't export timber to Sweden, most people would not imagine that we'd export steel—but that is the case for certain types of product, particularly special materials such as surgical steel. We also export a lot of food, particularly biscuits, crisps and soups; but one of the biggest exclusive contracts we have is with United Distillers. We export a lot of spirits to Sweden, probably 10 to 12 containers of spirits a week."
So as the UK arm of a Swedish corn pany, is Pal Line autonomous—or is this a corner of Goole that is forever Swedish? "No, we operate fairly independently, although we are an allScania fleet," Hornsby smiles. "With the larger MN line lone of Sweden's largest, with 30 vessels) taking over a controlling share in Paltrans, and having no UK arm of its own, it has given us a better level of financial security across the board, although we don't operate any differently now."
When it comes to the euro, Hornsby has definite views: "From our point of view we would welcome Britain's entry into the euro as it would give us not only an easier time with admin, but the currency exchange is so volatile that it makes structuring rates difficult. The only saving grace is we have no competition from foreign hauliers coming into the UK, but as a shipping company generally we have a lot of competition from the RD-RD operators. Our strength is in quality of service."