UK Floods - The Impact on Freight
The widespread and prolific flooding across the UK has impacted heavily on the freight industry. As reported significantly over the past few days, amongst the areas most affected are Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire; this following previous heavy rain in the North of England.
A number of companies have already made statements in respect of the impact that the extreme and almost unprecedented weather has had. Amongst these is Broadleze Transport, which is based in Cirencester. The firm, which belongs to the Pallet-Track network, was last week in a situation where 30 per cent of deliveries had not been made. In the words of a company spokesman: "It has been a nightmare".
The majority of the company's trucks were able to plough on through the deluge, owing to their high clearance from the ground; the real problem was at the destination itself, given the large number of businesses forced to temporarily close.
Another firm in a similar predicament is James Young & Sons, which manages the Gloucestershire postcode region on behalf of Palletways. There, it reported that ten per cent of freight remained in its warehouse undelivered. The closure of the M5 motorway added further layers to the disruption, resulting in some trucks arriving at their destinations eight hours later than expected.
The chairman of United Pallet Network (UPN), Martyn Chapman, did highlight one positive aspect of the conditions. This, he stated, related to the network's in-house electronic data capture system, which had provided information on the status of deliveries in real time.
Within Rail Freight, the floods also had a huge impact. The Business Planning Director at Freightliner, Keith Gray, described how the floods in Yorkshire had demanded a three day closure of the firm's Leeds terminal. This, he said, "cost us 94 train cancellations", with approximately 3,500 containers subject to subsequent and extreme delays.
With the next round of floods in and around Oxfordshire, 17 train services were cancelled. Mr Gray here highlighted the difficulty in ensuring drivers worked within their allotted hours, given the extra journey times for those services that could operate.
The unrelenting rainfall experienced in the early summer of 2007 has smashed all previous records for this time of year. On the 26th July, the Met Office confirmed that in excess of 387mm of rain had fallen between 23rd April and the same date three months later.
Source - Freight International Newsdesk
