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As with P&O, Norfolkline, through its parent Maersk, is also

26th February 2009
Page 40
Page 40, 26th February 2009 — As with P&O, Norfolkline, through its parent Maersk, is also
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in the road transport business with a large UT fleet across Europe. "Unaccompanied trailers are very important for us," says commercial director Rod Ferguson. They are a mix of our own and customers' traffic."

For Norfolkline's own transport contracts, he has no doubt as to the advantages of UT, which enables tractor units to be worked more intensively at each end of the journey "If we're delvering along the M62 corridor, we can ship into Immingham and get two traction-only trips a day done from the port." This keeps the trucks local, allows the possibility of double-shifting and, says Ferguson "is more sociable for drivers". This is an important consideration since fewer partners or families these days will tolerate multiple 'nights out'. "Generally, UTs are loaded today for delivery tomorrow," he adds.

Ferguson has also noticed changes in operating patterns, partly bought about by the relative value of Sterling against the Euro. UK haulage is becoming more competitive. Eastern European haulage is more expensive, and freight coming in from France, which has driven from Germany, Holland and Scandinavia, is now tending towards UT.

On the Irish Sea, Norfolkline has vessels on both long and short routes. Slower overnight sailing is, says Ferguson, more cost-effective, but the firm has recently done an exercise for a major supermarket client (for which it also operates a driver-accompanied service) to demonstrate how UT can meet some of its logistics needs and save CO2, something very important to the retailer's brand image.

As with competitors, the type of boat can dictate traffic patterns. Freight-only ships typically take 115 trailers, but only 12 drivers, mixed passenger and freight RO-RO vessels have 70% accompanied trailers, catering and cabins.

Rates are lower for UT, not least because freight-only ships tend to be smaller and cheaper to run. They can squeeze more trailers on, have fewer crew and don't need to provide passenger facilities and such extensive safety features.

Overall traffic volumes are down, although they may not have dropped quite as drastically as the media might have you believe.

This year will be difficult," admits Ferguson, who has seen volumes drop 5-6% since autumn 2008. The Irish Sea sector is very competitive, and Norfolkline has already announced some job losses on the Heysham service, where smaller ships are being replaced with a larger vessel.

Norfolkline's UT traction is largely undertaken by small fleets. 'We have 100 trucks of our own, mainly on dedicated traffic," says Ferguson. "Until recently there's been a big shortage of traction because long-sea container operators could offer better rates. We try to work with long-term partners and build reletionshins. We nrefer five-10-wagon family outfits, some have been working with Norfolkline for 25-30 years,"

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