DP World London Gateway is aiding supply chain reliability as it takes ad hoc vessel calls while other UK ports face closures and congestion during bad weather.
Ten vessels have made diversionary calls to London Gateway since Christmas as weather conditions impact other ports’ landside, waterside and rail terminal operations while London Gateway has remained open throughout.
Dean Hawkridge, Head of International Supply Chain at B&Q, said: “Importers order stock months in advance with an expected date for goods to be on the shelf. It is difficult to predict if and when weather issues may cause delays, but the impact can generate problems along supply chains, with back logs taking days to clear after a port’s operations are halted.”
“DP World London Gateway’s ability to continue operating when other ports have stopped operations is welcome news as shippers are seeking reliability for deliveries to go as planned.”
In a further boost to efficiency in UK supply chains, DP World London Gateway has become the first UK port to use a quad lift system on its quay cranes, which can pick up four twenty foot containers in a single lift. The system is also capable of a tandem lift of two forty foot containers, effectively doubling the number of containers that can be unloaded from a ship at a time.
In addition to the existing weekly call by the Southern Africa Europe Container Service, Hamburg-Sud and Hapag Lloyd have recently announced the transfer of services to London Gateway in May, to include services to and from South America East Coast, South America West Coast and India, Pakistan and Middle East.
DP World, March 6, 2014
The way this has been worded makes it out that London Gateway continued operations throughout the bad weather but surely quayside operations at least must stop when the weather gets really bad. These ships that called were serviced during the non windy spells to prevent congestion at other ports. Every port is subject to delays in bad weather however good you are.
ReplyDeleteBad reporting by someone who probably has never worked in a port!
ReplyDeleteThit is why I post stuff like this !!!!!! we need to be aware of what is being said about London Gateway. Its good to see two people have made sensible comments.
ReplyDeleteAccurate reporting of what London Gateway says - not my job to create news, I report what they say accurately.
ReplyDeleteI live in Felixstowe, I know most of the people involved, and I'm often in touch with your PR office, and they reply to my emails, but never, ever offer stories, although they say they will, and I'd be glad to run with them.
lets see what happens when hamburg sud starts there and they cant live up to there promises off 30 plus boxes an hour,its all good being Abel to do 30 plus on a simulator but on a live ship with rigger's and unforeseen circumstances arising is a different story .we all know it takes months off working live ships to be come accustomed to how a crane works and im afraid the level of the crane drivers there are not up to much .
ReplyDeletei think you have hit the nail on the head , often ' stories' are not always the truth , but please some people
ReplyDeletelets face it we will not be seeing the kind of weather we just have for a very long time and felixstow is very well established and gateway has not been Abel to prove there claims of being a reliable port yet .so i cant see them losing much business to them in near future .
ReplyDeleteIn a couple of weeks I'll be filming at Gateway again - and in the past couple of years of running Shipping TV, I've been there 4 or 5 times - but I've never been invited to film anything at all at Felixstowe, although I live here and film locally regularly. It would be great to have a positive, genuinely local item about the port on Shipping TV . .
ReplyDeleteLondon Gateway want all the publicity they can get. Felixstowe,Southampton and other well established ports just get on with it.
ReplyDeleteChris you should come to tilbury .the Thames only port with proper workers not university graduates who think they now about container shipping.
ReplyDelete1: Yes, you're right, and they are getting it. Publicity constantly tells a story and reinforces their marketing, and Southampton also have done good PR.
ReplyDelete2: I'd love to come to Tilbury - get me an invite!
Chris you have been alive a long time and i am sure you know if they invite you in, you will only film what is the company / Health & safety line .That is why there is very few if any films of what a stevedore ( be he RO/RO , General cargo or Container) has to do on a day to day basis. for instance :Your picture in a previous blog with the stevedore standing on top of the hatch vent , How does that conform with the working at height regs ?
ReplyDeleteA very long time! We come back to the point of reporting, not creating the news - I am in no way a campaigner in this instance, but would gladly report on a new item where a stevedore refused to stand in a dangerous position . .
ReplyDeleteVery interesting topic, thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteChris you sound like a puppet journalist, have you ever worked in management by any chance?
ReplyDeleteAnon, spot on with safety. No port would allow any detailed report on safety unless they tell their version. Hse only scratch the surface and have good lunches. Safety on paper not in practice
Quote "Accurate reporting of what London Gateway says - not my job to create news, I report what they say accurately."
ReplyDeleteSo if they told you the moon was flat and made of cheese you'd report that accurately? All your doing is perpetuating their PR, which lets be honest is going to be full of fanfare and economical on some aspects, for instance, several of those vessels cutting and running as LGW couldn't meet demand, hauliers waiting up to 15hrs for a box.
I've no issue with news reporting, but perpetuating others PR isn't really news, you just end up looking like a mouth piece for LGW, and as for Felixstowe not inviting 'you', there may be a reason for that and I suspect LGW readily have you so that they have another outlet for their PR.
On the whole Felixstowe doesn't entertain 'news', as noted above they just get on with it, shippers know where Felixstowe is, they already know the good and bad points and they base their decisions on that, and thus far most of the large companies still remain at Felixstowe, that may change, but until then Felixstowe will continue to do exactly what it has been doing in the past.
Of course I would, and I'd preface it in exactly the same way that the item was titled and the voiceover started:
ReplyDeleteThe title said "London Gateway claims" - and it is the claim that I'm reporting. The voiceover clearly said that "London Gateway has said that . . . "
I'd report the story you suggest in exactly the same way , making it hopefully clear that the story was their claim, not any associated fact!
As far as the previous comment goes, love it: "puppet journalist"? Sounds like a trade unionist slur from ages ago!
Chris, perhaps you should ask questions like a professional journalist and not just publish what they tell you. I wonder if they worked continuously when other ports stopped? Oh no they don't have enough work to continuously work through. The truth is, they have picked up vessels that were held up in the back log who didn't want to wait at anchor for a berth to become available. No mention of the vessels that diverted from Gateway to Felixstowe and Thamesport recently I see.
ReplyDeleteHave London Gateway actually brought any new trade into the country from other European ports (not those in the uk ). All they seem to be trying to do is move trade from other ports in the country.
ReplyDeleteNo they have not !!!! to date they only have two services both of which were pinched from The Port Of Tilbury.
ReplyDeletethere also pinching skilled men from tilbury to because they relised that they cant service the vessels that they have stole from tilbury.should be interesting to as the men they have poached are all union members ,and in the beginning they didn't want any union.
ReplyDeleteSo they are at last employing experienced Dock Workers, a bit late in the day as their reputation has been dented big time. Would be even better if Gateway would get new work at their new dock rather than poach of other ports with rates that will be not be viable in one years time.
DeleteGoing back to what was said earlier about Gateway working through bad weather when other Ports wont.
ReplyDeletePersonally, i think that's impossible. I live very close to Gateway and regularly over the years have walked/Biked around the surrounding areas of the port. Even now they have Created the Wildlife Masterpiece, i walk the Dogs every day and a lot of the time it can be extremely foggy and windy.The area is very open with mostly marsh land surrounding it.Taking into consideration the height of their Cranes, i would imagine they will have a job seeing that statement through.
I worked at London Gateway in the very first year of the project.
ReplyDeleteI remember many senior managers claiming that the port was likely to create thousands of job and people were being fired every day.
I have seen at least thirty colleagues being brutally fired and I decided to leave myself because I was unable to cope with that and was drinking almost every evening coming back home from the office.
This people are always talking rubbish....the day they will fall it will be a good day for me.