Gefco to use Chunne
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by Amanda Bradbury • Car transporter subcontractors of Peugeot's logistics subsidiary, Gefco UK, will be hit hard as the company pioneers throughChannel Tunnel rail services for finished cars.
The £50m transporter sister company of the French motor manufacturer subcontracts almost all car transporter work to Walon, Richard Lawson, BRS, Autocarriers, MDC, ECM and DFS.
The company is understood also to be considering leasing car transporter vehicles itself, in order to take tighter control of vehicle availability, lead times and inventory.
The company moves 1,000 cars a day, importing Peugeot and Citriien cars, handling their UK distribu tion to dealers and exporting Peugeot 306 models from the company's Ryton, Coventry plant.
Gefco looks set to become the first company to use rail for importing cars into the UK from this week.
It is due to sign short-term rail contracts worth an estimated E1-2m to bring Peugeot and Citroen models into a private rail terminal near Gefco's distribution centre in Bathgate, near Glasgow.
Gelco UK logistics manager Jerry Rudd says the contract is designed to cover a shortfall in availability of road fleets during the summer rush for this month and July only.
But Rudd admits that it i is likely that the company will choose the site of its new Midlands hub, due to be opened next year, partly on the basis of whether it has private sidings—so cut ting out road transport work for exports and imports in the area.
Li RID says it is on schedule to launch its intermodal services through the Channel Tunnel a week on Monday (June 13). Six services are poised to roll: Milan; Paris; Basle; Strasbourg; Lyon and Perpignan.
The lift-on, lift-off box ferry service from Harwich to Zeebrugge operated by RfD has been taken over by Stena Sealink: RfD's Trainferry service from Dover to Dunkirk will end in March 1995 (CM 26 May-1 June).