Marseille-Fos wins Ivory Coast banana import contract and begins rail shuttle between container terminals, TNT opens healthcare hub in the Netherlands, and Dayton Freight Lines introduces DFXpedited Service.
France-based fruit and vegetable specialist the Canavese Group will return the contract for its weekly banana imports from the Ivory Coast to Port of Marseille-Fos in France after years of shipping through Antwerp, Belgium.
According to a statement from the port authority, Marseille eastern harbor has already started handling the 80-TEU per week reefer service, operated by French ocean carrier CMA CGM. The banana imports are being handled by stevedores Intramar at the port’s Med Europe terminal.
Canavese Group said of the move, “The economic logic of serving southern France via Marseille had been supported by renewed client confidence in the port’s capacity, reliability and service quality regarding perishable products.”
Last year fruit and vegetables volumes at Marseille-Fos increased 6.5 percent to almost .55 million, compared to 2013. The port estimated 40 percent for throughput for fruit and vegetables was handled in the eastern harbor area.
The port also announced it will link the Marseille and Fos container terminals with a new daily rail shuttle starting on May 11.
Operated by Railliner – part of the Eurorail/Regiorail group – the shuttle will offer a direct service on the 76km route between the eastern docks at Marseille and the Fos western harbor area. The same shuttle will also link these facilities with the Clesud combined transport terminal at Miramas.
Express delivery company TNT has established an international healthcare transport hub in Heerlen, the Netherlands. Dedicated to the shipping of medical devices, the 2,000-square-meter facility will allow for next-day delivery of devices to 96 percent of Europe’s 16,000 hospitals and clinics, the company said in a statement.
The Heerlen site is located near the European distribution centers of 80 major medical device manufacturers and is connected to TNT’s European road and air networks via the company’s hubs in Duiven, the Netherlands, and Liege, Belgium.
TNT said it will also operate direct road connections between Heerlen and several European countries, such as France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UK, with same day service available for emergencies.
Less-than-truckload carrier Dayton Freight Lines has introduced DFXpedited Service (DFX). The service will use ground and air transport to serve all of North America.
DFX is designed to address same-day and next-day shipping needs using cargo vans, tractor trailers, same day flights and air charters, the company said.