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Operators get flexible Continental services
Page 44
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TOLL-ON/roll-off ferry services :ontinue to prosper and are :ttracting new customers, some 4 whom may not be aware of ome of the facilities offered at ontainer ports.
Customs and Excise, for intance, are concerned that some .ansport operators don't know hat there are facilities for rivers and owners of removal ehicles to examine the contents I Customs sealed containers in rder to ensure safe load dis.ibution.
Such examination requires le presence of a Customs fficer so that Customs seals lay be broken and replaced. .pplications for these facilities hould be made to the local urveyor of Customs.
Within the last month P840 lormandy Ferries have anounced the purchase of a third hip for their Dover/Boulogne )ute. Renamed Panther, she till come into service next ebruary joining Lion and Tiger nd making eight crossings aily, with a capacity including
5 15-metre freight vehicles.
P&O first operated ferries etween Britain and France 150 ears ago, and, says chairman ord Inchape, the new vessel will mean waiting time will be kept to a minimum on both sides of the Channel. He adds that expansion of facilities by the Port of Boulogne will add to the attractions of this least-cost route to Paris or the South of France.
P&O Normandy Ferries, jointly owned by P&O and the French company, Saga, is, incidentally, starting a London / Ostend jetfoil for passengers in February 1980.
Freight rates to Europe have been escalating this year, and if fuel prices go up again any time this is likely to be reflected in charges. Operators have to watch this, and work out even more closely which are their best routes besides the ferry charges, there are waiting times and drivers' hours to be considered, plus the fact that a longer sea route can mean less to pay for fuel on a shorter land journey.
Some Northern international hauliers have been turning to North Sea Ferries from Hull at the expense of Dover.
However, Dover continues to do all right: TownsendThorensen's fleet of roll-on / roll-off freighters and multi purpose vessels alone operates 40 to 56 sailings a day in and out of Dover. This company has just added the 1585-ton ro-ro Anu, which can tarry 60 12metre trailers, to the Dover fleet, and in these days of industrial strife it is pleasant to be able to report that John Briggs, a director, says that with union cooperation it was possible to make the decision and complete the arrangements to bring the Anu to Dover within two days.
Southampton has much to commend it, and P&O Normandy Ferries have introduced a special autumn and winter tariff, which means that the price of the crossing to Le Havre is the same as for the Dover/ Boulogne route. A chart and audio visual presentation, says the company, prove that the cheapest way to most places in France from Britain is by using the Southampton / Le Havre route.
Advantages to be gained on this route include easy road access to the ports and good road connections for South and West France, Spain and Portugal.
The company also emphasises the advantages of using the
Dover/Boulogne crossinc.
compared to Calais. Boulogne ii says, has no congestion; anc Customs clearance takes aboul 15 minutes only, the port is 2E miles nearer to Paris than CalaiE is, and there are no toll charges along Route Nationale 1, aE against a 39-Franc toll on thE Autoroute.
At Southampton drivers car make use of a freight cam• pound, groupage shed, anc drivers' rest room with TV.
For Ireland, integrated ferr and road transport operatoi Pandora Ltd is more than dou• bling its Fleetwood /Dublir capacity from the middle of thiE month. The existing 90-trailei ferry Buffalo will be replaced Is) the ibex and Tipperary, bud. earlier this year in Japan. Each vessel can carry 1 2 5 1 2rr trailers, and the capacity i! shared with B +1 Line.
Pandora is also investinc £.11/2m in 250 additional trade' vans and platform units that wl enter service early next year.
B+I Line's freight service gc totally ro-ro from the middle o the month when the Dublin/ Fleetwood freight-only service introduced four years ago, wil be intensified.