FTA: U.K. supply chain inefficiencies remain
The United Kingdom’s Freight Transport Association, which represents British shippers and logistics companies, warned that despite reduced congestion at U.K. ports this year, inefficiencies in the supply chain still remain.
Speaking today at the 'Tackling Ports and Infrastructure Congestion' conference in London, Andrew Traill, the FTA’s head of rail freight, maritime and air cargo policy, said that a repeat of 2004’s severe ports congestion was only avoided due to a combination of a falling trade and increased port capacity.
Earlier this year, the FTA, along with a number of other British shipping and logistics representatives, formed a discussion group to examine the serious congestion experienced at U.K. container terminals in the run up to Christmas last year. The FTA said the group identified “a raft of broken or malfunctioning links in the supply chain”, including:
* Carriers did not know what the customer wanted.
* Ports did not know what was coming to them.
* Truckers arrived at ports to deliver or pick up containers at the wrong time.
* The shipper or receiver would not receive the freight when it was ready.
“We still have inefficiencies in the chain, which means that unnecessary costs are being incurred. Last year those inefficiencies were exposed; this year they are not so obvious because the peak-season volumes are down,” Traill said. “The whole industry needs to act now before those failings are exposed again. Industry must not waste this opportunity to eradicate those problems, regardless of whether trade volumes on the scale of last year, or higher, occur again.”