Canals barge in on oil deliveries
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• by Guy Sheppard Fuel company Bayford Thrust has switched from road tankers to canal barges for oil deliveries to its storage depot east of Leeds. The move is expected to save up to 16,000 tanker journeys over the next rive years.
Transport Minister Glenda Jackson officially opened the company's terminal last week. The Government met £223,000 of the overall 2300,000 cost of developing the terminal through a Freight Facilities Grant.
Jackson said: "For a long time, the waterways grant scheme has languished and has been a poor relation when compared to rail, but thanks to the Government's efforts to publicise the grants and to streamline them to make it easier to secure a grant, we are seeing a real change." She added that seven grants worth more than 2,4m had been awarded in the past two years.
Jonathan Turner, marketing director of Bayford, said the investment meant the company's 40-strong tanker fleet could be used more efficiently.
"It has been delivering from Immingham to our oil depot," he added. "Now it will be delivering direct to our customers. We believe the future of transport in this country will rely on a more integrated approach incorporating a variety of transport methods."
He added that although the journey by the Aim &, Calder Canal took much longer than by road, far larger volumes could be shifted within a given period of time.
A spokesman for British Waterways said the equivalent of 250,000 truck journeys a year are now accounted for by freight transport on inland waterways, and the figure has begun increasing after years of decline.
The Government believes that up to 3.5% of UK road freight could be diverted to inland and coastal waterways.