Chinese New Year rush and threat of tariffs leaves box ports congested
The Chinese factory rush to get goods out before the new year holiday, and the ...
© Nigel Baker
The embattled UK port of Felixstowe has again had to revert to refusing to accept empty containers, in a continuing effort to clear its congestion backlog.
According to customer notice from Taiwanese line Evergreen to UK shippers and forwarders, the port this morning announced it would “temporarily stop the restitution of all empty containers until further notice”.
UK forwarders said the ban would mean further challenges to inland container operations already suffering from severe congestion.
Many hauliers and forwarders have blamed the port ...
Comment on this article
Chris Gosling
November 03, 2020 at 10:38 amWorth remembering that Felixstowe’s VBS spreads over 2 terminals; Landguard (berths 8 and 9) which hauliers say is now an empty container graveyard so only used for live import collections – hence the disparity on vbs issued vs used.
There are certainly unused slots on Trinity on weekdays, but most of these are during unsocial hours – it is impossible within normal legal drivers working hours to collect a box from the port at 2am when there are slots, then drive to a delivery point 4 hours away to arrive at noon, then drive back after unloading.
If every delivery point were open 24 hours like the port, it could be make to work, but releasing VBS at the same rate throughout the night doesn’t automatically make them of use to the haulage community.